RG Diary: Day 3

The Queen is back

How did Royal Wedding guest Serena Williams feel about the Nike advertisement that says “the Queen is back”? We are amused, it turns out, though a little concerned about upstaging the bride on the title front.

“Nike came up with this idea right when I decided I was going to come back. And so it's kind of interesting how it all tied into the wedding,” she said. “And then I felt a little awkward because now, you know, Meghan is royalty and I have known her for so many years, and I'm like, I'm not - now she's a princess. Anyway, it's a - a duchess, I should say, excuse me. But anyway, it's all really cool.”

Also for the record, HRH Serena did not participate in, let alone win, a game of beer pong at the wedding reception. Beer pong is a game in which players attempt to throw or hit table tennis balls into cups of beer, and their opponents are required to drink the contents of any cup in which a ball lands. “There was no beer pong,” insisted Serena. “I don't even drink beer, and I don't know where this story came out. It's not even remotely true. And my friends are, like, What happened? I'm like, there was no beer pong. So it's kind of funny how that was just, like, I was looking at Alexis, like, wait a minute, did we miss something? Anyway, we have a big laugh about it.”

Dress diplomacy

Maria Sharapova was asked for her opinion on Serena Williams’s Black Panther-inspired short-sleeved black catsuit with long leggings. “I just got, er, I did get a little glimpse, but I haven't seen too much of the match, but Nike does a really good job of making statements,” she said. “That's the great thing about tennis. You can, like, express your individuality and be different. I love that about tennis.”

When is an ace not an ace?

We all know that an ace is an unreturned serve and also a person who excels at a particular activity. But here is a random fact learnt from the centenary of the death of Roland Garros, the fighter pilot after whom the stadium is named. When it comes to talking about flying aces, you have to be careful. Garros is erroneously called an “ace”. In fact, he shot down only four aircraft. A war pilot can only claim to be a fighter “ace” if he shot down five or more enemy aircraft in his duels in the skies. The honour of becoming the first ace went to another French airman, Adolphe Pégoud, who had six victories early in the war.