Tommy Paul suggests what would have helped Serena Williams play better on her Wimbledon return

Instead, the 44-year-old entered Wimbledon on the back of two doubles matches at Queen’s and Berlin with Victoria Mboko and Karolina Muchova respectively.

But a stricter focus on singles could have made all the difference for the WTA superstar, according to her ATP counterpart and fellow American Paul.

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Tommy Paul suggests singles warm-up would have helped Serena Williams at Wimbledon

After he reached the third round at Wimbledon, Paul was asked if he watched Williams take on Joint on Centre Court.

“Yeah, we watched it,” he replied.

And when asked what he made of her performance and level, he responded: “Yeah, I mean, I’m not sure.

“I think it’s pretty impressive at her age to come out and… I mean, she was striking the ball pretty well, returning pretty well.

“I thought she was going to, like, go after it a little bit more.

“But, you know, I think it would have helped her a lot to have maybe a match of singles before obviously coming out to Wimbledon.

“But, you know, she’s Serena. She can do whatever she wants.”

Williams plans to play doubles alongside Venus Williams at Wimbledon, although a knee injury has cast those plans into doubt.

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Tommy Paul pleased with his serve in latest Wimbledon win

While Williams has endured a tricky return to Wimbledon, Paul is flying high at the All England Club.

The 21st seed this year, he has now knocked out Alexandre Muller and qualifier Kwon Soon-woo, both in straight sets.

Paul said of his latest win: “I think I served well today.

“I think that was the main thing that I guess got me over the line.

“Besides obviously that game, serving for the second set, I didn’t lose serve once, so I thought I came up with some good serves on some big points and played a pretty solid match all around.”

The world number 25 started out with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 victory, and followed that up with a 6-3, 7-6(7-4), 6-2 victory.

And he has every right to be delighted with his serve in round two, having hit a massive 19 aces and just one double fault.

That should give him great confidence going forward at the grass-court Grand Slam, where he now takes on Hubert Hurkacz.

And that certainly won’t be an easy match, with the Pole having knocked out 11th seed Casper Ruud in the first round.

Ruud was among the Wimbledon first round shocks, where Paul’s compatriot Ben Shelton was also stunned by qualifier Otto Virtanen.