LONDON — Through it all, Venus Williams kept working, kept striving, kept eyeing yet another Wimbledon championship.
Through it all, through the difficult days of adjusting to life with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease, through the disappointing days of first-round losses that led to questions about retirement, through all of the accumulating years, she pressed on. And on Saturday, facing Garbine Muguruza in the final, Williams had a shot at her sixth title at the All England Club — nine years after her last one and, remarkably, 17 years after her first.
Williams twice was a point from taking the opening set before unraveling completely, dropping the last nine games and losing 7-5, 6-0 to Muguruza, who earned her first Wimbledon championship.
"This is where you want to be. I like to win. I don't want to just get to a final," said Williams, at 37 the oldest woman to play in a title match at the grass-court major since 1994. "It's just about playing a little better."
She appeared ready to take control Saturday, ahead 5-4 in the first set and with Muguruza serving at 15-40. But Williams netted a forehand to close a 20-stroke exchange on the first set point. And on the second, she sent a return long. Muguruza would go on to win that game — and the next eight, too, to earn her third Grand Slam trophy.
Williams owns seven of them — five at Wimbledon in 2000-01, 2005, 2007 and 2008; two at the U.S. Open in 2000-01.
But her coach, David Witt, offered one explanation for the way everything came undone for Williams against Muguruza.
"It was just nerves," Witt said.
"She never, I thought, looked like she was relaxed out there," he added.
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