That much at least was obvious in her moment of victory here. It is always intriguing to witness these very public seconds of private achievement, and this time she lived up to her own name by being serenity itself. When she raised her arms, it seemed not so much in defiant triumph but as if she was releasing a great burden to the four winds; and when she fell back with her eyes closed, it was not the limp-bodied slump of exhaustion, but the quiet repose of a rest well-earned.

What was it that made the difference this time? What was it that she could reach here, at Wimbledon, which was just beyond her fingertips in the US, Australia and France? “I came into this tournament with a different mind frame and mindset,” she said. “I knew I needed to keep calm, be confident, just play the tennis that I've been playing for well over a decade.

“For a while Patrick [Mouratoglou, her coach] has been telling me I haven’t been myself. But some time after the French Open, we were talking about strategy, and he said: ‘You’re back.’ I guess he was right.”

What a brilliant, extraordinary partnership the two of them have created since he first began advising her in the wake of her humiliating first round defeat at Roland Garros 2012. Nine of her 22 Slams have been amassed since they came together, when she was already into her 30s. By contrast, Steffi Graf won all but one of her Slam titles by the age of 27 and three months, clinching her last just shy of her 30th birthday.

As time has gone on, the relationship between Serena and Mouratoglou has changed – yet the two of them have shown great intelligence in their understanding of what is professionally important, and what was not. His reading of her, and what she needs to hear, is instinctively on the money.

And this much we surely know… Having secured her 22nd Slam, Serena is at last stopping to smell the roses; but hers is a career indefatigably in bloom, and just a few steps along the professional path there is surely more fragrance awaiting her yet.