Where better to start than Serena, then? After playing some 'Serena tennis' to clinch the title, the younger Williams sister gives some 'Serena chat'.

When she was a young girl, growing up in Florida, did she dream of becoming the best tennis player in the history of the sport? "At that age I was thinking about ice cream trucks, not anything else," she said.

Some taxing matters cropped up for the 15-time Grand Slam winner, who is hysterically referred to as the world No.4 tennis player.

She has been spending time in Paris with renowned coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Though not, as her tax lawyer points out, a sufficient amount of time to be taxed on her winnings. "I don't live there, for the record," she said. "Can't pay those taxes. I live in the United States of America. I am American."

Tennis can be an expensive business. All that room service for starters. The mere prospect of going to dinner caused Serena to enter an extended period of introspection.

"I actually went to dinner yesterday and I started not to because I usually never leave the hotel for three weeks," she said. "I was like, you know what, Serena? Try something new. Get something to eat outside of the hotel." In the end she went to the ice cream truck.

Your diarist is finally in Manhattan, having torn himself away from Queens (whoever named part of the borough Utopia clearly didn't have high standards).

Beside occasional dispatches on the Presidential campaign, the time there has provided a rare insight into another momentous and eagerly awaited election campaign. Yen Chou versus Ethel Chen for Assembly District 40 should be a thriller.

The diarist is haunted by hallucinations after the surreal incident on Saturday in which Sir Sean Connery and Sir Alex Ferguson gatecrashed an Andy Murray press conference alongside his mum Judy.

Understandably, Judy embraced her son. "You smell of wine," was the world No.4's sentimental response. The diarist probably will also if the Scot has won his first Grand Slam by the time you are reading this.