It’s not just any old day at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND —  Elderly people with decrepit tennis ages such as 29 have hogged the early landscape of a freshly hatched Wimbledon, proving again that Wimbledons sometimes begin with goodbyes.

The retiring Marat Safin said goodbye to Wimbledon singles on Tuesday at 29. The respectable Robert Kendrick said goodbye for this year at 29 after scaring Andy Murray, then delighted Centre Court spectators with one last dive onto the grass during his walk out. The downright implausible Kimiko Date-Krumm, 38, a 1996 semifinalist for mercy’s sake, said hello again after a 12-year absence, then said goodbye after a spirited loss.

Then there’s Venus Williams, still sailing on at 29, downright royal in the defending champion’s traditional 1 p.m. Tuesday start on Centre Court, claiming her 15th straight Wimbledon win and telling a BBC reporter, “I enjoy, I guess, every blade of it.”

With her 6-3, 6-2 victory over Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, the five-time champion Williams hasn’t dropped a set since the third round in 2007.

It’s a surreal moment when you grow up to become the last Wimbledon opponent of someone you considered a star all along, but that’s what happened to Jesse Levine, the 21-year-old, Canadian-born American from Boca Raton, Fla., when he faced Safin.

Levine wandered in through the qualifying, then found himself on Court No. 18 in the dusk beating Safin in four sets and saying, “I’m still kind of feeling weird right here that I just beat Safin, because I’ve always kind of watched him on TV.”

Levine’s play even managed to coax one last broken racket out of the mercurial Safin, who somehow was able to break the thing on grass -- “That’s how hard he threw it,” Levine said -- but couldn’t coax a change of heart from Safin, who said he’s finished here (except for doubles) and called himself “relieved.”

“Relieved” might also describe Murray, the epicenter of the mania as British tennis fans and other assorted onlookers behold their real-live No. 3-ranked threat from Scotland. Where the people felt hope more than expectation over Tim Henman 10 years ago, one BBC commentator said, now they feel expectation over hope over Murray, so you could feel a twinge of consternation when the No. 76-ranked Kendrick wouldn’t play along.

The 29-year-old from Fresno lost on Centre Court by 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, but said, “I think I gained a few fans on my side to the end. At the beginning there was kind of silence when I made a point, but I think I got five or 10 on my side by the end.”

Date-Krumm looked remarkable, troubling one of the bright young lights of the women’s tour, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki. A three-time Grand Slam event semifinalist before stopping after 1996, she lost to the No. 9-ranked Wozniacki, then told of having married an archly competitive race car driver who has inspired her to return both in Australia and here.

“Yeah, now women’s tennis is more speedy and more powerful,” Date-Krumm said. “Of course, for me a little bit tough.” She paused. “Not a little bit.”

She departed by 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, but other sorts keep fending off the decrepitude. For instance, the Tahiti-born Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, 36, is here to say goodbye.

Only he didn’t. He scored a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 wipeout over Nicolas Kiefer to keep going.

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com