Point of order.
Confusion surrounds Serena Williams' claim that she was about to commence playing "Serena tennis". The question, then, is what exactly she has been doing until now. "You don't feel like you're playing 'Serena tennis' yet, do you?" asks one bemused reporter. "Do you?" the world No.4 replies with a question of her own. "Yeah, I do." "You do?" "Okay". "Yeah, I do." "Okay. Thank you."
The Herald's dispatches from the US Open are, of course, always scrupulously impartial, even when a certain 25-year-old from Dunblane is involved. As a warm-up for producing another piece of parochial, one-eyed journalism from the Scot's semi-final against Tomas Berdych, the diarist watched Barack Obama accept the democratic nomination. On the Fox News channel.
Pippa Middleton is a big tennis fan/publicity seeker who watched the Wimbledon final and turned up at Flushing Meadows this week to watch Andy Murray's quarter-final against Marin Cilic from a front-row seat. The pair have never been introduced, however. "I've never met her," the World No.4 said. The diarist feels you could have worse stalkers.
David Ferrer outlasted Janko Tipsarevic in a five-set match in which he called an injury time-out to have his toenails cut as the Serb prepared to serve for the third set. The Spaniard reminisced fondly afterwards about the time his coach locked him in a shed as tough love for a perceived lack of application at practice. "It was only one time," he said. "He locked me in because I didn't want to practise, no? I went there, and I waited two, three hours."
As a Spaniard, Ferrer must surely be in constant communication with fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Had he had a text from the injured Mallorcan after the match finished? "I don't know as I don't answer the phone in these moments," Ferrer said. "I finally ended the match and then I took a shower."
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