Tennis has moved on but Serena devotion at sporting vigil is still at a high | Jonathan Liew

Williams’s comeback at Wimbledon elicits disbelief and reverence among fans during her defeat by Maya Joint

The shapes and the silhouettes are the same. The movements are effortlessly familiar. The way she gathers the ball before she serves: not so much bouncing it as toying with it, batting it around her ankles, as if considering what an appropriate punishment might be. All this is as it ever was, like the words of a song you know by heart. So why does it still feel so strange?

It is a little before half past seven on a warm Wimbledon night when Serena Williams comes back from the dead. And no, this is not literally true (although she has cheated death more than once), but not a million miles away from what it feels like. Some spectators have brought old photos of her, and are holding them up as she walks on to court, like mourners at a vigil. As if they’ve managed to summon her through the force of their collective devotion.

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