Tony Blair, bright-eyed and puppy-eager, had not long strode into Downing Street when Venus Williams, her hair braided with purple and green beads, played her first match at Wimbledon. Princess Diana was still alive. There have been 10 changes of Italian prime minister in the Williams era. It is a measure of the 37-year-old American’s extraordinary longevity that three of her opponents in the past fortnight, all of whom she mercilessly thrashed, were actually born in the year of her debut: 1997.
But there was no fairytale ending yesterday under the Centre Court roof as Williams attempted to become the oldest women’s singles champion in Wimbledon history. The 23-year-old Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza lived up to her hashtag nickname – Muguruthless – to win the final, comprehensively in the end, 7-5, 6-0.
“Venus is an incredible player,” said Muguruza afterwards, cuddling the Venus Rosewater dish. “I grew up watching her play … ” The crowd laughed at the backhanded compliment and Muguruza giggled, “Sorry!”
Williams, as ever, was dignified in defeat. “There’s been a lot of beautiful moments in the past couple of weeks,” she said, before dropping a hint that she will be back at Wimbledon. “I think there will be other opportunities, I do.”
Centre Court fizzled during an engrossing first set, and the screams of players and fans were amplified by the closed roof. Williams’s collapse in the second set was harder to explain, with John McEnroe on the BBC suggesting it might be connected with problems she has faced in recent years.
In 2011 Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that leaves sufferers listless and inexplicably fatigued. Between 2011 and 2014 she never came close to challenging in a major tournament and it appeared that her career was in an irreversible decline.
She also arrived at Wimbledon 2017 with serious off-the-court problems. On 9 June she was involved in a road accident in Florida that resulted in the death of 78-year-old Jerome Barson, a passenger in a vehicle that hit Williams’s SUV. The police originally blamed Williams for the collision, and Barson’s daughter sued her for wrongful death. Only this week was she cleared of wrongdoing by the police, following the emergence of new video evidence. After her first-round match at Wimbledon, Williams began to cry when talking about the incident. “Life, you can’t prepare for everything,” she said. “There are no words to describe how devastating – and yeah, I’m completely speechless.” She walked out of one press conference and has avoided discussing the episode.
Still, the idea, back in 1997, that Venus Williams would still be at the top of the game in 20 years would have been laughable. The best female players were teenagers or in their early 20s, and Williams, with her sister Serena, seemed to herald a new style of play in which power and athleticism were everything. Wimbledon 2017 has certainly provided compelling evidence that “age and guile”, as American humorist PJ O’Rourke had it, “beat youth, innocence and a bad haircut”.
The stand-out match of the fortnight was a five-hour epic between 31-year-old Rafa Nadal and Gilles Müller, 34, won by the older man 15-13 in the fifth set. Meanwhile, some of the rising stars have fizzled: 22-year-old Nick Kyrgios – who might fall into the “bad haircut” category – pulled out in the first round with an inflamed hip. The injury, though, did not stop him going out to a nightclub the same evening, cigarette in hand.
Leading the way on the men’s side, as ever, is the timeless Roger Federer. On Sunday, the 35-year-old Swiss will attempt to win his eighth Wimbledon title and his 19th grand slam against 28-year-old Marin Čilić from Croatia. If he comes through – and one suspects that everyone on Centre Court on Sunday bar Čilić and his mum will want him to – he will be the oldest man in modern times to win the Wimbledon singles.
Aside from not smoking and not going to nightclubs, what is the secret to the enduring success of Williams and Federer? For both players, a major factor is playing selectively. Both Venus and Serena Williams contest fewer tournaments than all of their rivals. Federer, meanwhile, took six months off last year to recover from a knee injury. The break, he believes, will allow him to continue playing for years. Federer was 21, with a dodgy haircut of his own and wispy facial hair, when he lifted his first Wimbledon trophy in 2003, and on Friday he found it a stretch even to recall the details. “2003 feels like ages ago, because of the ponytail, the beard, whatever, you name it,” he laughed.
Now Federer and his wife, Mirka, have two sets of twins, all under the age of eight, who travel to tournaments. “I don’t remember what I did back in 2003, to be honest. I didn’t have kids running around, potentially waking me up at night. Today we’ve got to, like, close down the doors, say, ‘Daddy is sleeping’.”
