Respected polling firm YouGov - I use that adjective generously - have spent the last five years trying to establish once and for all whether Andy Murray is more Scottish rather than British. The results are in, with 52% of respondents feeling he is Scottish and 35% thinking he is British - although apparently the spikes in the tendency view him as British occur at times when he is most successful. Who would have thought. Apparently a list of their next research projects include establishing once and for all whether the Pope is Catholic.
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From Russia with love-all. The grass at Wimbledon is growing on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Having reached the quarter finals here, she somewhat suddenly changed her mind about this place. "I've always been saying that I never like grass, always been quite negative in terms of grass and playing at Wimbledon," the Russian said. "I think right now I'll change my mind. It's been always one of my favourite Grand Slams, very special."
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The Wimbledon schedulers can be evil. Not only is Pavlyuchenkova's countrywoman Elena Vesnina humiliated by Serena Williams on women's semi-final day, she then finds herself playing doubles against her and her sister Venus later that day. For the record, she lost that match too. "Serena even told me at the net, See you later," recalled Vesnina. "Not long time to wait."
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Venus Williams, meanwhile, is pro-choice on equal prize money. The question is whether two women's semi-finals, both done inside two hours, offered the same value for money as two men's quarter finals, which took ten sets and the best part of eight hours. "I don't really have a comment on that question, sorry," she said. Any reason why not? "Hey, free choice."
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Next year will be Venus' 20th Wimbledon, enough to qualify for a carriage clock. But what had she learned from her run to the semi-finals in 2016. "Learned the most?" she said, a tone of increduity to her voice. "I mean, it's definitely not my first tennis season."
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Just space for one last mention for the charming Dominika Cibulkova, who will be getting married in Bratislava today and not playing in the women's final at Wimbledon. But when she is walking down the aisle with her fiance Miso Navara, cutting the cake and doing her first waltz, surely part of her will be thinking about tennis? "If I would be still here, I would just think about tennis," she said. "What I do, I do hundred percent. I will get married hundred percent, not thinking about tennis."
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