Venus Williams hardly looked a winner fighting as she did with her back firmly upon the ropes for so long.
However, fortune can favour the brave if they cling to hope and at the conclusion of the longest women's final in Wimbledon history Venus was Queen of the Courts once again.
A rank outsider in disarray as she entered the tournament, she leapt up and down like a jack in the box and hardly stopped long enough to receive her trophy from a sombre Duke of Kent, unwilling or unable as a royal to join in her delight.
Such was the unbridled joy of the elder Williams sister that my heart melted, even though Lindsay Davenport was the true winner for so much of an epic match before a back injury cruelly restricted her.
She was leading 4-2 in the third set when her discomfort became apparent and Williams, sensing her opportunity like a cornered animal, viciously pounced.
Venus, who had danced on the spot like a boxer with a towel tied round her neck while Davenport went off for treatment, became a three-time champion and in doing so had beaten the current queen bee Maria Sharapova and world No 1 Davenport.
A new generation of teenage tennis clones may have invaded the world rankings but here we had the older brigade re-establishing order in a year when the women's final for once overshadowed that of the men.
We'd seen Roger Federer defeat Andy Roddick last year. To do it again, especially on grass, was not even a mild surprise.
Federer looks destined to dominate at Wimbledon just as Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras did before him. For now the women are more unpredictable.
