Ahmed Rizvi is the tennis guy of The National staff, and in doing a meaty story on Serena Williams ahead of the start of Wimbledon tomorrow he illuminated some trends I had not noticed.

She goes to the All England Club having won the past three major championships, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open and the French Open, but I did not know any of the following:

–She is one victory away from becoming the first person since 2002-3 to be champion of all four major tournaments at once. Who did it 15 years ago? Serena, in what became known as the Serena Slam. She can record her second Serena Slam by winning Wimbledon.

–If she can win at Wimbledon, she would be one U.S. Open championship away (and she has won the past three there) from becoming the first Grand Slam winner (all four majors in the same calender year) since Steffi Graf in 1988.

–Before Serena, the number of women who had won a major championship after her 32nd birthday was one — Martina Navratilova.

–Serena actually has been better since she turned 30, on September 26, 2011. From the start of the 2012 season, she has won 220 matches and lost 19, a winning percentage of 92.8 percent. Before she was 30, her record was 496-101, a winning percentage of 82.8 percent.

–She has been more efficient in the slams, too. Before turning 30? Thirteen slam titles in 45 attempts. After 30? Seven slam championships in 14 attempts.

–At the moment, she is crushing the rest of the prominent players in the women’s game. She has a 61-11 record against the five active former No. 1-ranked players (excluding her sister Venus), meaning Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.

If she can win another couple of slams, she will catch Graf at 22, the record for the open era.

Of course, it should be noted that Serena has struggled at Wimbledon the past two years, going out in the fourth round in 2013 and in the third round in 2014, a few days before she abandoned a doubles match as it looked like she was falling to pieces mentally and physically.

Since then she is 21-0 in singles matches.

Anyway, we knew Serena was good. And then she turned 30, and she has become even better.