WORLD Cup mania is taking hold, even if showing football is banned at Wimbledon. What I mean, is that it has become a thing for sportspeople down here to don England football shirts to show their patriotism, not least as the England kit is the only one which gets round the All England Club rules on all-white training garb. To be fair, if Scotland ever reached a World Cup, Nicola Sturgeon would probably go the whole hog and wear a Scotland strip in parliament. After Kyle Edmund at the week, perplexingly yesterday it was the turn of Aljaz Bedene, even though the Slovenian who spent eight years in Welwyn Garden City gave up on being British after being refused the chance to play in Davis Cup ties. He is a Tottenham fan who drew inspiration from Harry Kane’s nonchalance about his man-handling against Tunisia to stay calm when he got rough line calls in Monday’s match against Cam Norrie.

THE full terms of Roger Federer’s new kit deal with Uniqlo are eye-watering. If reports are to be believed – and the Swiss legend tacitly confirmed them in his press conference yesterday – it is worth $300m over ten years. Considering he is only likely to play tennis for two years more, that means they have essentially committed to paying him a Kieran Tierney transfer fee for eight years just to hang out in the park with his kids or collect them from the school gate.

NOT so fast. Gael Monfils briefly had the fastest serve in Wimbledon history, when a delivery against his countryman Richard Gasquet was timed at 150mph. The fact a gremlin was in the speed gun was met with a Gallic shrug.