Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal were caught at the finish line, but they’re still happy to be in the race

NEW YORK—“I feel like if I convert a few more points, a few less errors, then this kind of match is mine.”

That was Venus Williams’ subdued assessment of her agonizingly close 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) loss to Karolina Pliskova at the U.S. Open on Monday. Venus’ visor was pulled down, and she spoke in shorter, brusquer sentences than she normally does, even after defeats. The 36-year-old former No. 1 has taken her share of tough losses in recent years, but this one must have stung. How many more chances at a U.S. Open quarterfinal—or semifinal, or final—will she have?

Venus had played brilliantly in the first and third sets, reminding many of us of her dominant days on this court at the turn of the century. On Monday, she had been lifted up by one of the loudest and most unified audiences ever heard in Ashe Stadium. Venus had held a match point, on Pliskova’s serve, at 5-4 in the third set. And she had saved three match points, again on Pliskova’s serve, two games later to send the match to a deciding tiebreaker.

When the crowd stood and cheered Venus at the start of that tiebreaker, it seemed to me that she had come full circle with the fans at her home Slam. Fifteen years ago, on this court, they cheered for her fellow American, Jennifer Capriati, when Venus met her in the semifinals; the atmosphere was as tense as I can remember at any tennis match.

Unfortunately for Venus, there was another difference between that day—four days before 9/11—and Monday. In 2001, she was 21, fearless and the defending champion. Capriati never had a chance. On Monday it was the 24-year-old Pliskova who played fearless tennis in the face of a hostile crowd. At 4-5 in the third set, it looked as if the Czech might crumble under the weight of noise in the arena. Instead, she fired off a series of blazing line-drive winners that were hit with absolutely no margin for error, and without a second thought. In the tiebreaker, this normally erratic player didn’t make a mistake.

“At least I had my serve,” said Pliskova, who hit eight aces and 33 winners, when asked if she felt “lonely” out there. “So at least something was on my side … I wanted to beat her, not the crowd, [and it’s] impossible to beat 23,000 people.”

Venus, despite all of her experience, was the one who couldn’t find the court when she needed to the most; she made six unforced errors in the tiebreaker.

“We both competed really well,” Venus said. “Of course I’d like to come out on top of that match. Just kept fighting until the end, but I don’t know, she had a little more luck today.”

Experience, as we’ve seen this weekend at Flushing Meadows, is a decidedly mixed blessing in tennis. Venus’ defeat was a virtual carbon copy of Rafael Nadal’s loss to Lucas Pouille 24 hours earlier. Each of these 30-something, two-time U.S. Open champions was facing a younger opponent who had never played in Ashe before. Each had the crowd willing them on. Each built a lead—Nadal was up 4-2 in the fifth set; Venus was up a set and a break—and then gave it back. Each saved three match points at the end, before missing shots that, in less pressurized circumstances, they would make 99 out of 100 times.

On Sunday I wrote that anyone who has watched Nadal over the last two years could probably have predicted the manner in which he would lose to Pouille; he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in similar fashion last month in the semis of the Rio Olympics. Sadly, the same was true on Monday for Venus. If you’ve watched her much in the latter part of her career, you know the pattern. Like Rafa, she’ll never admit defeat, and like Rafa, she’ll never quit mentally or give herself an excuse to lose. And then, like Rafa, she won’t win in the end. Fans of the recently retired Lleyton Hewitt also grew to know this story all too well over the years.

In their youths, Venus, Rafa and Hewitt were known as three of the game’s most cussed competitors. Obviously, the years took a toll on their bodies; the fact that Venus’ is still going as strong as it is at 36 is remarkable in itself. But the years also did something to their confidence. None of these three champions lost the ability to compete, to fight or to come back; that part always came naturally. What they struggled with was the ability, once they had made the comeback, to close it out. The belief is still there and the desire is still as strong. But as Martina Navratilova— another champion who played well into her 30s and beyond—once suggested, maybe after a career of ups and downs and wins and losses, the mind is not as blind as it once was to the possibility of defeat.

Fortunately, Venus and Rafa do seem blind to the possibility of discouragement. Their post-loss reactions on Sunday and Monday were as similar as the losses themselves.

“I need something else,” Nadal said. “I need something more that was not there today. I [am] going to keep working to try to find [it].”

Whatever happens, Rafa said he was “enjoying every moment” of his 13th season on tour.

Asked what her goals were for the future, Venus echoed Nadal. Their focus, even at this late stage in their careers, is on gradual, day-to-day improvement.

“To continue to play better tennis," Venus said. "At this point my goals are just to cut back on my errors.”

“I love what I do,” she said when asked about the work that goes into her job.

Nadal and Venus have always been models of winning athletes. As they’ve aged, they’ve become models of what it means never to fall out of love with your sport, whatever pain and frustration it may bring. No matter how many times Venus and Rafa get caught at the finish line, they never get tired of starting the race again.