WIMBLEDON, England — It was as if time had been cranked back at Wimbledon: back to an era before polyester strings and big rips on every shot, which was also the era when officials at the All England Club were still scoffing at the idea of a roof over their hallowed Centre Court.
But without that new age roof, there would have been no marveling at Kimiko Date-Krumm on Wednesday afternoon, no gasping with surprise at her retro game and now-exotic skills, no marveling that, at 40 years old, she was still able to run down ground strokes in the corners and conjure volley winners at full stretch or off the laces of her sneakers.
It had been 15 years since Date-Krumm played on Wimbledon’s center stage, but she made the years melt away for nearly three hours in this second-round match. The only thing missing was the major upset, as she faltered at the finish against the five-time Wimbledon singles champion Venus Williams, who ultimately prevailed, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6.
“I played a very tough opponent today,” Williams said. “She doesn’t play anywhere near her age.”
Experience has ruled in the women’s game of late with Li Na of China, 29, defeating Francesca Schiavone of Italy, who turns 31 on Thursday, in the French Open final earlier this month. But Date-Krumm is a decade older than Schiavone and nearly a decade older than Williams, who, at 31, is older than nearly everyone she plays at this stage of her career.
No woman in her 40s has played singles at Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova got the urge for a last hurrah in 2004 and won a first-round match at age 47. On Monday, Date-Krumm became the second-oldest woman to win a singles match here in the Open era by defeating Katie O’Brien.
But O’Brien, a low-ranked Briton who needed a wild card to play here, hardly represented the same sort of challenge as Williams, even if this is not yet the same imperious Williams who has turned so many grass-court matches into routs.
Ranked 30th and seeded 23rd, Williams arrived at the All England Club short on matches after missing nearly five months with a hip flexor injury. She returned to the circuit only last week in Eastbourne, losing in the third round.
She is now back in the third round at Wimbledon, where she will face María José Martínez Sánchez of Spain, another unusual player for this era who likes to serve and volley and has had an acrimonious exchange or two with Williams’s younger sister Serena, who once threatened her and accused her of cheating at the French Open for not admitting to being hit in the arm with a shot.
But there is no one on tour who plays quite like Date-Krumm, the deft and diminutive Japanese star who had Williams bamboozled for long stretches of Wednesday’s match with her flat forehands, two-handed backhand slices and abrupt changes of pace and tactics.
“You don’t really get a rhythm against her,” Williams said. “She hits a ball that no one else hits.”
Rafael Nadal, the defending men’s champion, won under the roof later on Wednesday, defeating Ryan Sweeting of the United States, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Though there was considerable anticipation here about Nadal playing the rising Canadian star Milos Raonic in the third round, it won’t happen this year. Raonic, seeded 31st in his first Wimbledon, retired while leading, 3-2, against Gilles Muller with right hip pain after falling in the fourth game.
The two top American men, No. 8 seed Andy Roddick and No. 10 Mardy Fish, advanced to the third round in straight sets. Roddick will face Feliciano Lopez of Spain in what could be a preview of a Davis Cup match in Roddick’s home city, Austin, Tex., the week after Wimbledon. Fish will face Robin Haase of the Netherlands.
In the women’s draw, No. 2 seed Vera Zvonareva, No. 4 Victoria Azarenka and No. 8 Petra Kvitova later won second-round matches.
The first time Date-Krumm played here was in 1989, when 36 of the players in this year’s Wimbledon women’s field had not yet been born. The last time Date-Krumm played on Centre Court was in 1996, losing in the semifinals to Steffi Graf.
Weary of the tour and the attention that came with being one of Japan’s biggest stars, she then took an extended leave, only to rediscover her passion for the sport in her late 30s after her marriage to the German racecar driver Michael Krumm.
She returned to the circuit in 2008, 12 years after leaving it, and though this season has been less of a joy ride than last year, when she rose into the top 50, her enthusiasm was still evident from the first point on Wednesday as she scuttled around the grass like a youngster.
Grass, where the ball stays low, is particularly suited to Date-Krumm’s game and to her low center of gravity; she is 5 feet 4 inches.
“She really knows how to play on this stuff,” said David Witt, Williams’s hitting partner.
Williams knows her grass-court tennis, too (and stands 6-1). But it was Date-Krumm who broke her in the opening game and jumped to a 3-0 lead that she soon extended to 5-1 before Williams began to reel her in.
With rain keeping play from starting on all other courts, this match — played under the closed roof — was the only live programming available at Wimbledon throughout the early afternoon. But even if the sun had been shining, it is doubtful that many in the crowd would have felt the need to leave their seats and search for better entertainment.
“Tough to beat that match,” said the veteran coach Nick Bollettieri, still shaking his head at some of Date-Krumm’s vintage shots and strategies.
Date-Krumm learned the game before any of today’s current players, taking cues from the likes of Navratilova and Chris Evert as well as Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini.
“I like Martina Navratilova style,” Date-Krumm said.
Attacking the net in this age of modern string technology is often considered a fool’s errand. Passing shots are too easy to hit with topspin now; baseline pace supposedly trumps subtlety. But Date-Krumm, at least on grass, offered a reminder Wednesday that timing and phenomenal placement can alter that balance of power, and playing under the roof — with no wind or glare to worry about — certainly helped her precision.
Again and again, she caught Williams by surprise by hitting a groundstroke, waiting a half-beat for Williams to begin her stroke preparation and then scampering into the net to punch away a volley. On occasion, she mixed in a serve and volley.
But it would be unfair to reduce Date-Krumm to a revivalist act. She has had to modernize her game, too, despite her Eastern forehand grip and yen for the sliced approach shot.
She has had to learn to handle the faster pace, produce more power of her own and also improve her fitness.
“Maybe I have more stamina than before, compared to when I was young,” said Date-Krumm, who ran the 2004 London Marathon in under 3 hours and 30 minutes during her retirement.
She needed fitness Wednesday to play her demanding style and needed to find a way to return the two fastest serves of the women’s tournament so far — both 120 miles an hour — that Williams slammed late in the final set. But though Date-Krumm found plenty of solutions to modern problems, Williams was, despite her evident rust, too determined a champion to defeat.
After Williams held serve, under considerable pressure, to 6-5 and then to 7-6, Date-Krumm finally cracked; she made four unforced errors in the final game of the match.
“I think today it was a good fight for me,” Date-Krumm said.
A good day to have a Centre Court ticket instead of an umbrella, too.