After hard fall, Venus Williams finishes out 24th Wimbledon singles appearance in loss to Elina Svitolina

If her 24th Wimbledon appearance is to be her last, no one can deny that Venus Williams harbored the same passion and determination she brought when first stepping out at the All England Club in 1997.

Elina Svitolina defeated the five-time champion, 6-4, 6-3, in a matchup of wild cards to notch her fifth Grand Slam match win this season following her return from maternity leave in April.

“It’s always a pleasure to play against Venus,” Svitolina said in her on-court interview. “Played her so many times, I think in almost every Slam. It was a really special moment today to play here.”

The Ukrainian posting a confident victory at the grass-court major again was inspiring to see, as was watching Williams refuse to throw in the towel after enduring a hard blow early on that impacted the flow and tactics of the contest.

Arriving on court with her right knee heavily strapped, Williams began with a break advantage. Down break point in the third game, the 43-year-old opted to approach the net. Moving to her left to block a backhand volley, Williams went down as she let out a loud yelp. She grabbed the taped area initially, as chair umpire Marija Cicak immediately came down to check on the American. Svitolina crossed the net with a towel and words of comfort, before Williams stood up without assistance.

"I'm not sure what I've done. I'm going to have to investigate it tomorrow," Williams told press. "It's late today. But it was quite painful."

She later added, "Grass is inherently going to be slippery. You're going to fall at some point. It was just bad luck for me. I started the match perfectly. I was literally killing it, then I got killed by the grass (laughter)."

Needing a medical timeout, Williams had limited options beyond keeping the rallies as short as possible when play resumed. After Svitolina strung together four straight games, Williams valiantly held in a deuce game by finishing with an inside-out forehand winner to reach 3-4. She hung on in another service game that went to deuce, and had two shots for 5-5. Svitolina calmly jammed her opponent with a second serve on the first break point and handled an awkward rally to fend off the second.

Svitolina broke to launch set two and fired an ace out wide to wipe away a break point in the following game. Though Williams kept battling, a double fault enabled the 2019 semifinalist to move ahead 4-1.

Outside of missing her chance to serve out the match at 5-2, Svitolina was simply rock solid. She hit zero double faults (to six aces) and her winner count was nearly double that of her unforced errors total. The 28-year-old sealed the encounter when she correctly challenged her forehand return up the middle clipping the baseline, a shot that Williams didn't handle initially before it was called out. She shook Svitolina's hand, but not Cicak's.

"I completely disagreed with the call. It was just that kind of day," said Williams, currently ranked No. 558.

Williams was making her 24th appearance at the All England Club, having debuted in 1997.