She recalls, ‘In 2004 it was a bit of a mess because our housing situation didn't work out,' she recalls. ‘We ended up staying with a family with three young kids. There were a lot of 6am wake-up calls from the kids. I still wonder how I coped and the morning after the final just holding my replica trophy with them in their garden like it was no big deal.
‘The final was surreal, something that as a young player you think of as the Mecca of tennis. I had horse blinders on, I didn't think about anything. That's why I was fearless. I took it as if I was playing on court No 20, although I was on Centre Court in front of thousands of people playing for the championship.
I'd got to the quarter-finals a couple of weeks before in Paris and that was a thrill for me. And with every match at Wimbledon I felt I was playing better. I remember the match against (Daniela) Hantuchova was one of my best. I got that form and didn't let it drop.
‘Playing Serena in the final, it had been an accomplishment getting there, and I just went with it.'
It is a surprise to her that she has not won again at the All England Club, but twice in Paris on clay to add to US and Australian Open titles, which for years her movement looked so unsuited for. It seems hard to believe that it was all 10 summers ago.
‘If somebody had asked me then if I would win all four Slams and be No 1, I don't think I would believe it, because you almost believe at 17 that everything is such big luck,' she says. ‘But here I am.'
