DON'T you just dig Mirjana Lucic-Baroni?

It turns out that the German-born Croat, a hugely popular winner against Simona Halep in the ladies' singles on Wednesday, has had an unfulfilled passion for archaeology since she was a little girl. She would certainly make a more presentable presenter than Bill Oddie for the next series of Time Team. "We have some ruins in Croatia, some old Roman ruins, and when I was a little kid I wanted to dig," she said. "My parents were like 'you cannot just go dig'. It's not allowed. I said, Why not? It's there. It's nobody's."

LUCIC-BARONI is nothing if not cosmopolitan. Married to an Italian, now living in the USA, her mongrel status gives her an insight into many national characteristics. Not least of these is the Italian one, which one member of the press corps swiftly lived up to. With her other sister also married to an Italian, there had apparently been a heartfelt plea from her mother not to bring a third into the house. "So I have no chance with your sister?" ventured one Latin lothario in the room.

NOT, you understand, that there is anything wrong with Italians. Or not much, anyway. "Italians are really good," said Lucic-Baroni. "Only they should open stores before 3:00."

SHORT and not so sweet. One of those eccentric Italians, Fabio Fognini, is concise when it comes to summing up his defeat to home favourite Benoit Paire. Q. What happened today from your point of view? FABIO FOGNINI: I lost.

STATUS symbol. Rafa Nadal has started wearing a custom-made Richard Mille watch, which retails at a cool £550,000 whilst playing at Roland Garros. Apparently it allows him to magically avoid time violations.