The first clue was uncovered last week. Serena Williams had just been given an almighty scare by Christina McHale in the second round and she threw out the first indication of what was to come.
“I know, mentally, I'm hands down one of the toughest players out here,” the world No.1, the defending champion and the possessor of 21 Grand Slam titles said. “It's very difficult to break me down mentally.”
Since then, Serena has been getting progressively better, as her 6-2, 6-0 clumping of Elena Vesnina in 48 minutes proved in the semi-final. If she was impressive against Annika Beck in the third round, overwhelming in the second set against Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth and armour plated against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter-finals, she was untouchable against Vesnina.
She only dropped three points on serve throughout the match (and only one behind her first serve), she did not drop any points on serve at all in the second set and she allowed Vesnina to win only five points of any description in that second set. For the Russian, it was like banging her head against a brick wall – it was lovely when it stopped.
But for all her physical and technical prowess with bat and ball, it is the mental side of the game that can sometimes be Serena’s undoing. Suddenly, and out of nowhere, the nerves appear and nail her feet to the floor and knock her sights out of kilter. Last year at the US Open, the reason was plain to see: she was chasing a calendar Grand Slam and the nerve endings were fraying. She lost in the semi-finals to Roberta Vinci.
Even at the Australian and French Opens, where she was ambushed in the final by Angelique Kerber and Garbiñe Muguruza respectively, there was still several hundredweight of pressure leaning on her shoulders: she was now chasing Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles. That is a subject she simply refuses to discuss this week in SW19. “My goal has never been 22; I don't talk about that any more,” she said, swiftly changing the subject.
However she deals with the pressures of being one of the greatest players ever to play her sport, she seems to be doing it well. Now into her ninth Wimbledon final and chasing her seventh title, she is exuding a sense of peace and calm – even if not everyone quite understands.
“I feel good,” she said. “I felt great in other tournaments, as well. But I feel a little different. I just feel more relaxed and more at peace than I may have been in the past.”
This furrowed a few brows in the press seats. She’s calmer? Calmer than when? And why? “Just sometimes when you are fighting, sometimes you want something so bad, it can hinder you a little bit,” she explained carefully. “Now I'm just a little bit more calm.”
Ah, right. That makes sense. You’ve lost your edge. Gone off the boil. Not as hungry as before. It was like following the instructions of a firework: light the blue touch paper and stand well back. With heavy sarcasm and much rolling of her eyes, she agreed with her interrogator: “Yeah, I have no hunger anymore. Yeah, right.”
This, clearly, was not going well. She was asked to explain what she meant. So, as if talking a child through the basics of putting their socks on, Serena spelt it out. “It just means that I'm more calm,” she said slowly. “That's all it means. It just means that I'm more confident, more calm. Doesn't mean that I am less competitive at all.”
To be fair to the experienced and respected member of the press pack, he was just trying to get Serena to give us a quote. It just took a little longer than expected.
So this relaxed, calm and serene Serena must now face Kerber on Saturday. That would be the same Angelique Kerber who did for her in Melbourne – and the world No.1 has learnt from that experience. She will be ready for the German when they walk out onto Centre Court.
“I made a lot of errors,” she said. “She made little to no unforced errors. It was still a three-set match. I felt like I could have played better. I felt like she played great. She came out swinging, ready to win. She was fearless. That's something I learnt. When I go into a final, I, too, need to be fearless like she was. It was inspiring afterwards to realise there's a lot of things that I need to improve on.”
Improve? The woman who has swept all before her for the past four rounds knows where she can improve? That does not bode well for Miss Kerber or, for that matter, for Steffi Graf’s record. Just don’t mention it to Serena.