I don’t know how many readers watched Amol Rajan interviewing the former tennis number one, Billie Jean King, on BBC2 last Wednesday 22 June. For those who didn’t, I really recommend seeing it on BBC iPlayer.

Billie Jean holds an incredible 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 singles, 16 doubles and 11 mixed doubles. But she has been far more than just a top tennis player. She was also a serious social activist off the court. It’s down to her that women earn the same as the men today in the Grand Slams.

During the 1970s, when the women earned much less than the men, she formed a separate women’s circuit. She found a sponsor in Virginia Slims and enabled women professionals to earn both serious money and respect for the women’s game, at a time when female players were more valued for their looks than for their playing ability. The misogyny of male commentators (which would go along the lines of: “An attractive young lady, who if she took her glasses off and grew her hair…”) was quite breathtaking.

King also had a turbulent private life, which was made very public by the press. There was a massive backlash when it came out that she’d had an abortion — this was in 1971, before the Roe v Wade ruling. And then, on top of that, she was “outed” by a former female lover, with commercial endorsements lost overnight as a consequence.

The Novak Djokovic debacle is finally done and dusted. He is out — deported, visa revoked for the second time, with the threat of being barred from entering Australia for the next three years.  

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“I’m going to treat this match as if it’s my last one because it’s arguably the most important of my career. I’ll be giving it all I have possibly got in the tank,” said Novak Djokovic before Sunday’s US Open final. Despite being overshadowed, unusually, by the Women’s Final, the Men’s Final was hugely significant.

Significant, because were he to have won, he would have been the first man since Australian “Rocket” Rod Laver to win the Calendar Slam, all four majors in the same year. “Rocket,” who achieved this in 1969 and is now 83, may live in Australia, but he flew in to New York to witness the occasion.

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Last night, Emma Raducanu won the US Open Women’s singles title. The scoreline was 6-4, 6-3 which looks straightforward enough — except it was anything but.

At 18 years old, Raducanu is the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004. She is also the only qualifier, male or female, ever to win a Grand Slam.

In the final, she was pitted against another wunderkind, the Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who is just a few months older and has also enthralled the New York crowds over the past fortnight.

In the end, Radcucanu was the one who held her nerve, despite overwhelming support for her opponent. That must have been unnerving for a player who until then had been the darling of the mainly New York crowds.

You’d think these two youngsters in their maiden Grand Slam final would be riddled with nerves on this huge occasion. Instead, we had a match of scintillating quality, with long, gruelling rallies – a match of extreme tension and a consistently high level of tennis.

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Wimbledon was a fascinating tournament this year, except that it all went out with a bit of a whimper. Matteo Berrettini, the 25-year-old Italian heart-throb, won the initial set at his first Wimbledon Singles Final appearance, polishing off the tie-break with a thunderous serve down the tee. Initially, his opponent seemed a touch nervous. But anyone who thought he was in for a chance at winning the title against Novak Djokovic was dreaming. Novak got his act together and more or less breezed through to the finish line, winning in four sets by 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

Get the Serb on an off-day over the best-of-three sets in a lesser tournament and you might just stand a chance. Dan Evans managed it in Monte Carlo, an event more about the country club’s spectacular scenery and glamorous reputation, where the tennis appears to be somewhat secondary,