ANOTHER musical interlude sur le Metro.

An elderly man enthusiastically belting out Volare on an acoustic guitar persuades me to part with 50 Cents. One wonders if this is how the real 50 Cent, or ten bob as he is known in Scotland, first got his name. For a fleeting moment, the diarist - a veteran of many house parties - feels obliged to borrow said instrument to bang out the first few chords of Wonderwall.

IF you were checking Twitter on Tuesday night, you might have thought the entire remainder of the tournament had been scrapped so the world's top players could concentrate fully on an online Fifa multi-player. Andy Murray, Jack Sock, Nick Kyrgios, Juan Monaco and Diego Schwartzman were all on-line, claiming to be the World No 1 at this variety of virtual soccer. It would have made some episode of Gamesmaster if Dominik Diamond could have rounded them all up into the one place. As it is, the actual tennis tournament continues, though organisers are bracing themselves for a number of withdrawals from players with repetitive strain injuries to their thumbs.

ON the subject of modern technology, Rafa Nadal is one of many players using a Babolat Play racket. They feature a new hi-tech piece of kit built into the handle which precisely tracks your ball striking throughout a match. The diarist wonders if this may help him on the tennis court too. But apparently you have to be able to hit the ball first.

CHAPEAU. It is 20% off day at the Roland Garros boutique on Thursday. This is good news as a colleague - the man known around these parts as Huge - has asked me to do secure him an official tournament skip hat. The only problem is that, even with this reduction, it is still 100% more expensive than any normal shop.