WIMBLEDON, England - It has been six years since Venus Williams last won a Grand Slam singles championship, here at Wimbledon. At 34, an age at which nearly every other top tennis player has retired from the sport, she shows up and, more often than not, is dismissed in an early round. Her stately presence remains, but her staying power is a fraction of what it once was.
So it seemed that Williams had little chance against a Wimbledon champion of a more recent vintage. Petra Kvitova, the 2011 champion and the No. 6 seed, is a six-footer in Williams's mold, an imposing figure of strength and reach.
The two traded two sets and unflinching service games deep into the third before Williams blinked. Seeded 30th but playing as if she might just have another championship in her, she was quickly broken by three consecutive mis-hit backhands, the last on match point. Kvitova escaped with a 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-5 victory.
The match was on Centre Court, the familiar site of five Williams triumphs from 2000 to 2008, and the scene of Kvitova's coronation three summers ago. It had all the heft of a pivotal match, the type played in the second week, not the first Friday. The bracket ahead of them was smoothed by other upsets, giving each a chance to dream of a deep run.
Kvitova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, moves on to play unseeded Peng Shuai in the fourth round. The toughest potential opponent in the quarterfinals would be Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 16th, thanks to the upset loss suffered by second-seeded Li Na, to unseeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
For Williams, it will be remembered as an opportunity lost. As the years continue to click past, it is reasonable to imagine the possibility of it being her final performance on Centre Court. She left with a smile and a proud wave.
She has gone six years since her last Wimbledon title, but has divulged no plans to retire from the game. Williams has always been a difficult read, her tennis career perpetually distracted by outside interests, like fashion and interior design. In 2011, she said she received a diagnosis of Sjogren's syndrome, an immune-system disorder, often accompanied by others, that causes dryness of the eyes and mouth and debilitating stretches of fatigue.
'Unfortunately, it's not something you had; it's something you have,' Williams said this week. 'So, on a daily basis, I'm trying to get the best out of myself. That's all I can ask, is to get the best out of me. I never compare myself to anybody else.'
Williams, ranked fifth at the end of 2010, fell to 103rd a year later. While she made it to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2011, she has not lasted that long in a Grand Slam tournament since. Friday represented her best opportunity.
Early on, she sported a balky but powerful first serve, and a nimble willingness to move forward, pressing the points against the more robotic Kvitova. Williams tried to move Kvitova around the baseline, preventing her from hammering her strong, left-handed ground strokes that, when working effectively, paint the corners like an artist and test the eyesight of the line judges.
Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011 as the eighth seed, beating Maria Sharapova in the final. It was no fluke. Since emerging as an unknown, unseeded semifinalist in 2010, she established a habit of long stays, reaching the quarterfinals, at least, in each of the past four years. She had six victories in 2011, and reached No. 2 on Oct. 31, 2011.
But Kvitova struggled over the past year, finding herself mired in so many three-set matches - a tour-high 37 - that she earned a respelling of her name: P3tra.
'It's funny,' Kvitova said this week. 'I prefer to have a '2' over there, but still.'
She remained in good humor though she has not reached a final this year, and was knocked out of the Australian Open in the first round and the French Open in the third. But she was part of an amorphous group of favorites at Wimbledon.
Williams won the first set by shattering Kvitova's final service. But Kvitova showed the steadier nerves and more reliable serve in a second-set tiebreaker, sending the match to a deciding stanza.
In a groove, each stayed on serve until the 12th game, with Williams serving. She hit a backhand into the net, and the crowd shifted with unease and shouted encouragement. A backhand hit long created match point and, with little drama, the next point ended with another backhand into the net.
Williams gave Kvitova a smile and a handshake, and did the same for the chair umpire. Within a minute, she was gone, off Centre Court, making room for others.
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