Big Month Ends With a Whimper : Wimbledon: Chanda Rubin, who played two amazing matches, loses to Huber in third round.

Whirlwind doesn’t begin to describe Chanda Rubin’s summer. Other 19-year-old Americans in Europe are sleeping on their backpacks in train stations. Rubin was busy plying her trade--tennis--and getting involved in two of the most memorable and talked-about matches on the women’s tour this summer.

The first came at the French Open earlier this month, the second at Wimbledon earlier this week. Her 6-2, 6-4 loss Friday in the third round to ninth-seeded Anke Huber sends Rubin home to Lafayette, La., with memories of a remarkable month. She was ranked No. 53 at the start of June; next week she will move into the top 20.

Rubin had advanced quietly through two rounds of the French Open before facing fifth-seeded Jana Novotna. Novotna led, 5-0, and served at 40-0 in the third set.

Methodically, Rubin chipped away. Novotna squandered nine match points in that game. As Rubin fought on, players began to gather around the television in the locker room.

Rubin fashioned the biggest comeback of the French Open and won, 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 8-6. She lost in the quarterfinals to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, but a legend was born.

She went home for a week and was greeted by a blizzard of newspaper clippings about the match that friends and strangers had sent.

“I got a lot more attention than I ever had,” she said. “But it wasn’t that big a deal.”

Her next trip to Europe was to Eastbourne, England, to prepare for the grass courts of Wimbledon. Rubin made it to the final but lost in three sets to grass-court specialist Nathalie Tauziat.

Rubin’s first-round Wimbledon match was uneventful, but the same could not be said of her second-round match against Patricia Hy-Boulais of Canada.

The two players remained on Court 16 for 3 hours 45 minutes. Rubin prevailed, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-5), 17-15. The match set a Wimbledon women’s record for most games played, and the third set lasted longer than two hours.

Rubin played with a pulled stomach muscle.

Rubin, an African American, is wary of being identified as a role model for anyone. “That’s a lot to place on anyone’s shoulders. If a child can watch me and decide to play tennis, that’s great.”

Rubin, whose father is a judge and whose mother is a retired teacher, is actively involved in charities and work with children. Now, when she speaks to a class, she can use her summer as an example.

“I always try to leave that with them, the idea that anything is possible,” she said.