Sun sets on Venus Williams at rain-plagued U.S. Open

NEW YORK — Venus Williams dug herself out of deficits over and over again until she simply ran out of solutions, exiting the U.S. Open before the third round for the third year in a row.

At 33, two-time champion Williams was the oldest woman in the second round at Flushing Meadows and while she made things interesting after a poor start to the match and to the final set, she couldn’t sustain her solid play all the way through and lost to 56th-ranked Zheng Jie of China 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5) on a wet Wednesday.

The match lasted three hours and two minutes — making it the longest between women in the tournament so far — and the third set alone went 1½ hours, closing when Williams missed a volley, then a return, on the last two points. She wound up with 44 unforced errors in all, half on forehands.

During her on-court interview, Zheng addressed the partisan crowd that was pulling for Williams, saying: “First, I want to say, ‘Sorry, guys.’ ”

Rain began falling in the early afternoon, jumbling the schedule, and eight women’s singles matches were postponed, including Williams’s younger sister, defending champion Serena, against Galina Voskoboeva.

Montrealer Eugenie Bouchard’s match against Germany’s Angelique Kerber was postponed until Thursday.

In all, there were more than four hours of delays during the day and 2012 men’s winner Andy Murray had yet to play a point as the time approached 9 p.m. Wednesday.

In the handful of matches that were completed by early evening — men in the first round, women in the second — 2011 French Open champion Li Na, and 2012 Wimbledon runner-up Agnieszka Radwanska won in straight sets, as did 30th-seeded Laura Robson of Britain.

No. 17 Kevin Anderson, No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny and 109th-ranked American wildcard entry Tim Smyczek were among the men’s winners.

Venus Williams and Zheng, a former top-15 player who twice reached Grand Slam semifinals, played all of two points at the beginning before their match was interrupted by showers.

When they resumed about two hours later, at 15-15 in the opening game, Williams’s play was full of mistakes. In the first set, she only managed to put 46 per cent of her first serves in play and accumulated 15 unforced errors, 10 more than Zheng.