WIMBLEDON, England — Time and again after losing a point, Venus Williams rolled her eyes, slumped her shoulders and let out a shriek of dismay that echoed through Centre Court, reverberating off its roof.
Facing the most, uh, experienced woman in the Wimbledon field — 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan — Williams was mired in a three-set struggle that lasted nearly three hours Wednesday, a tight, high-quality contest brimming with the sort of at-the-net, classic grass-court play seen so rarely nowadays.
“She doesn’t play anywhere near her age,” Williams said.
In the end, Williams, a five-time champion at the All England Club, mustered every bit of her competitive drive and considerable talent to pull out a 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6 victory.
“She played unbelievable today. I thought she had some luck on her side too, with net cords, balls hitting lines. I just thought today was a perfect storm for her to try to get a win,” Williams said. “Thankfully, I had some answers.”
After Williams managed to advance to the third round, fans with Centre Court tickets had a chance to see easy wins for two-time champion Rafael Nadal, then three-time runner-up Andy Roddick.
The top-ranked Nadal beat Ryan Sweeting of the United States 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, compiling 38 winners and only seven unforced errors. In the third round, Nadal will face Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller — the only man other than Roger Federer to beat him at Wimbledon in the past six years. Since losing to Muller in the second round in 2005, Nadal is 28-2 at the All England Club; that includes defeats against Federer in the 2006 and 2007 finals, titles in 2008 and 2010, and missing the 2009 tournament with bad knees.
“Will be a big, big test for me,” Nadal said.
Roddick’s strong serve was clicking again in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Victor Hanescu of Romania. The No. 8-seeded American hit 15 aces, saved the only break point he faced and limited his unforced errors to six.
