Does anyone else find Roger Federer ineffably boring? He's so strictly business it's untrue, both off and on court. As soon as the Wimbledon final began I immediately lost interest, because there's no trace of humanity (or humour) in either Federer or Nadal. I was rooting for Djokovic, who has a strictly business haircut, but who actually has a personality. I look forward to him beating Federer in the future. It seems to me that a lot of top sportspeople have no personality to speak of, particularly in more dangerous pursuits. Look at Formula 1 or Moto GP. The only remarkable thing about them is just how tedious they actually are. Perhaps, it occurred to me, they need to be like that in order to do what they do. In the same way, many sports competitors must be erring on the weirder side of OCD (we're all obsessive compulsive about some things), because discipline and control are fundamental to what they do. So it's not that surprising that Nadal lines up his drinks bottles with the labels facing the same way and spends moments adjusting his socks, or that Djokovic bounces the ball at least 15 times before he actually serves the damned thing.

At least bizarre obsessions are remotely interesting however. I'd rather that than the dullness of RF . . . and the loquaciousness with which he is greeted by pundits only serves to make him appear more boring.

Give me Venus any day. Some time ago there was a massive Williams sister backlash, which I'm pleased has subsded. I felt that the undercurrent to that was sheer snobbery, and perhaps even a edge of institutional (latent) racism. Venus has always proved herself to be an amazing athlete with true mental grit as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe I've turned anti-mainland Europe?