MEGHAN, the Duchess of Sussex, took a seat in the Royal Box for the first time, ostensibly to watch the latest dramatic instalment of her friend Serena Williams’ remarkable life story. But even the former TV star can’t have seen a plot twist like this coming.

Had the 36-year-old from Florida Beach Gardens claimed an eighth Wimbledon title in just her fourth tournament back from the complicated birth of her first child Olympia which left her ‘touch and go’ for a while, it would have been a sports story for the ages. Chasing a 24th Grand Slam in all, victory would have moved Serena level with Australia’s Margaret Court on top of the all-time lists, not to mention joining her, Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Kim Clijsters as the only three women to have claimed a major title in the Open Era.

Someone, though, hadn’t read the script. Angelique Kerber of Germany was about to steal the show.

The 30-year-old from Bremen hardly falls into the unknown category. She is a two-time Grand Slam winner who has met this opponent in two previous Grand Slam finals, winning out in Australia in 2016 then going down in two tight sets on the Centre Court later that year. A consistent ball striker who covers the court better than pretty much anyone else in the women’s game, if anyone was going to keep Serena honest yesterday it was her.

But few out there imagined she would come out all guns blazing and play a well nigh flawless couple of sets to see Serena off by a 6-3, 6-3 scoreline in just over an hour. In so doing, she became the first German winner of the Venus Rosewater dish since her idol Steffi Graf and joined big sister Venus in the very short list of players who have defeated Serena twice in Grand Slam finals. All she needs now to complete the career Grand Slam is a Roland Garros title.

“My first memories were watching Steffi here, seeing her winning all the matches, winning the matches in two sets actually,” said Kerber, who is in fairly regular contact with Graf by phone and text message. “I think she won here seven times. I remember watching her, everybody was playing in white on the grass court. Then I came here for the first time for playing juniors. And I felt just from the first point so good playing on grass.

“I’ve played so many great matches here in the last years. I think Wimbledon is something special. I think it’s traditional. To win here, it’s forever. Nobody can take the title away from me now.”

With play delayed by more than two hours due to the Novak Djokovic-Rafa Nadal semi-final and the closing of the Wimbledon roof, Serena quickly found herself caught cold. The former Suits actress wasn’t the only big name casting their eye over the 23-time Grand Slam winner yesterday - Lewis Hamilton, Tiger Woods and Anna Wintour were there too – but this wasn’t the start they envisaged. Williams netted a forehand after an 18-shot rally as Kerber broke her serve in the opening game, but refused to blame the bumping the women’s showpiece from its traditional 2pm slot.

“I’m completely a supporter of women, and women’s sport obviously,” she said. “But honestly, I just feel like it was a necessary evil. Not knowing how this match would go, two hours, three hours, I don’t think they could put the men’s semifinal behind the women because they have to come back the next day. It definitely didn’t have any impact on me. I’m not going to ever make an excuse. Actually every match this tournament I didn’t have a start time. If the tables were turned, I would have -- hopefully they would have done the same with the women.”

Pretty much the only Kerber wobble of the entire match saw her American opponent break back to love at 1-2, but Serena was a little out of sorts here and a loose forehand which flew long saw her edge clear again at 3-4 before a sloppy Serena backhand on set point gave her a mountain to climb.

While this is a friendly, respectful rivalry, there was no shortage of aggression from the American out there as she tried to turn the tide. There was a volley which might have decapitated her opponent if it had made contact but 24 unforced errors to just five from the German gave her too much to do, especially with that normally magnificent serve giving her very few free points. Succeeding in making her opponent run as much as she was, a running forehand winner from the left hander saw the German break for 4-2, and while she was put under pressure at 30-all as she served for the championship, Serena obliged with another loose shot. Kerber leapt to the ground, rolled around behind the baseline, then went up to celebrate the moment with her parents and coach Wim Fissette, who 12 months ago had helped take Jo Konta to the semi-finals here. She will be back to No 4 in the world on Monday, no mean feat considering she dropped out of the top 20 after an awful 2017.

“Without 2017 I couldn’t win this tournament,” said Kerber. “I learned so many things about myself. I was trying to not to think too much that I was playing against Serena”

Williams admits her priorities have changed. But that doesn’t mean she can’t still give her pursuit of more major titles her undivided attention. What will she tell her nine-month old daughter about this day? “Well, I think it was a happy story,” she said. “I’ll probably change the ending.”