An enduring love of tennis goes a long way when you're arm-wrestling Father Time on the Wimbledon grass. Just consider the metal-hipped Andy Murray on Monday night and also Venus Williams on Tuesday lunchtime, with the 41-year-old American defeating Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu in the opening round for her first victory for four months.
When you've been going around the world losing five first round matches in succession - from Miami to Madrid to Parma to Strasbourg to Roland-Garros - it must have been a joy for Williams to return to the All England Club, where she has won five titles, to play Wimbledon for the 23rd time.
Encouraged on social media by her mixed-doubles co-conspirator Nick Kyrgios, who was tweeting "let's go, partner", Williams achieved her first victory since February's Australian Open, giving her the chance in the next round against Tunisia's Ons Jabeur to do something for the first time for almost a couple of years: win two matches in a row.
While Kyrgios has seemingly fallen in and out of love with tennis a few times, Williams' adoration for the sport has never dimmed, and might have even been enhanced by this 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory, which took more than two and a half hours.
The younger of the two Williams sisters, 39-year-old Serena, has come to London in search of history and what would be a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title. It seems as though Venus, who describes herself on Twitter as "tennis player, big sister, grown-up girl", is playing more for the thrill of being out there on the grass competing.
When the oldest woman in the draw watches videos of her 20-year-old self winning the Wimbledon title in 2000, what she notices, above all else, is her face: "My face was unbelievable - you could see the killer instinct." Over the last 21 years, her face has softened a little, but she remains supremely competitive.
You could hear how much effort she was putting into her shots, and there were a few big cries of "C'mon" along the way on No.3 Court. Some things never change - her mother Oracene's facial expression, and Williams' will to win on the grass.
When you reach the stage of your career that Williams is at, you're not just dealing with Father Time but also with those constantly wondering out loud why you haven't retired already. What keeps Williams going is the pleasure of being on the match court and, you suspect, in this place in particular.
Thirteen years after the last of her titles in 2008, and four years after reaching the final in 2017, at the age of 37, Williams is ranked the wrong side of 100 so was reliant on a wild card to play.
Williams, who lost to qualifier Coco Gauff in the first round of the 2019 Championships, has now won 90 singles matches at the All England Club. You will be waiting a long time for a more fascinating encounter between the world No.111 (Williams) and the world No.160 (Buzarnescu).
In some contrast to Williams' long history at the All England Club, which began in the 1990s, this is only the third time that Buzarnescu has played in the main draw of The Championships, the first of which was as recently as 2018. On both previous visits, she lost to a top-10 opponent, to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the third round in 2018, and to fellow Romanian Simona Halep in the second round in 2019.
Showing her abilities on a grass court, Buzarnescu had her break point opportunities in the first set, including three at 5-5, but couldn't convert any of them. It was Williams, showing her competitive side, who took that first set.
While Buzarnescu, who was beaten by Serena in her last outing, at Roland-Garros, levelled the match, Williams was the better player in the third set. Williams was broken for the first time when she served for the match at 5-1, but successfully completed the victory two games later.
