After the defending champion and final 'Ova' had departed in the semi-finals it was left for a 'Port' to play against one of the 'I ams' in the final. It was perhaps apt that the most open singles tournament in recent history (at the start it was 7-2 the field) should culminate in such a topsy-turvy final. It is hard to recall a three-set Wimbledon final between two baseliners that contained so few rallies. It wasn't serve and volley it was trial and error.
It was a double comeback match. Venus had returned to her former pomp in the match of the tournament against Maria Sharapova. A game in which Venus made it plain to the champion just how far she has to go before she might be champion again. And up against the born-again Venus was the world number one, who hasn't won a Slam for five-and-a-half years. Last year, Lindsay had lost to Sharapova in the semi- finals and said that she doubted she would play at Wimbledon again. This year she was back and back in the final.
Venus started in the same irresistible vein of form with which she had dispatched Sharapova. For a couple of points. Then at 40-30 in the third game she served a double fault and everything became unhinged. The fluency was gone, unforced errors proliferated. The match was only 25 minutes old and she was already 5-2 down. Davenport just had to be solid and 'Locker Room Lindsay' does solid. It looked as if the title would be handed to her on a plate.
Then Venus found her groove to such an extent that she made Lindsay look static. Hitting with pace and accuracy, she rattled off nine straight points at the end of most of which Lindsay was left standing in the middle of the court looking like a lemon. It was magnificent but, so feeble was her play during the guts of the set, it was not quite sufficient.
With the match in danger of passing her by, it was imperative that Venus hit her stride. She sort of did so in taking a 2-1 lead but then, after blowing a break point, she did a little skip as if trying to loosen up. Venus was four games from defeat and she still wasn't fully ready for the match. In the fifth game, there were three more double faults and a rubbish backhand and a rubbish forehand before she finally clung on to her serve. Even after this, in relative terms, epic game, 15 games had passed in 55 minutes, many of which had been spent sitting on chairs. It was a rally-free occasion, a festival of mistakes, a carnival of errors.
Not that Davenport minded. As long as she committed slightly fewer she would be champion. And, frankly, given Venus's profligacy, making fewer errors was inevitable.
The seventh game was pivotal. On the first point, Venus responded to a shot on the line and with one down the line and on the line. On the second, she hit a sweet backhand passing shot. On the third, she grunted and got and finally prevailed. It wasn't as good as the semi-final but, at least, it was recognisable as being the same sport.
And yet just as it looked as if everything had changed, everything became the same again with Lindsay holding her serve in a game in which no point had more shots than the double fault that she served. In the ninth game Venus benefited from a lucky net-cord and then a line call that caused 'Locker Room' to drop her racket to the ground in befuddlement. Suddenly, Lindsay experienced something that had hitherto been entirely absent from the match - a tiny smidgen of pressure. Lindsay double-faulted to gift Venus a match point but Venus, typically, hit her return long. The pressure evaporated.
And Venus subsided. Two rubbish backhands and a double fault left her bereft at 0-40 and a fall left Lindsay to serve out for the match.
And yet, and curiously, Venus responded to her predicament by playing near perfectly to break the Davenport serve to love.
And to take a 3-0 lead in the tie-break. And to take this most odd contest into a third set. It was almost as if Venus was unable to stir herself until all the life had been nearly shaken out of the match.
In the third set Lindsay had two points for a 5-2 lead. She blew them, choking so hard she put her back out. The match was there for Venus to take. Venus seemed anxious to decline the invitation. She double-faulted to give Lindsay a match point. Didn't work. She dithered some more. There was a 25-stroke rally. It reached 7-7 in the final set. Would anyone ever win? Eventually Williams broke the Davenport serve and the title was hers, 9-7.