WIMBLEDON

You would have got long odds before the tournament started if you had picked Marion Bartoli and Sabine Lisicki, the 15th and 23rd seeds respectively, to contest this year's women's final. But it was a funny Wimbledon. Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova both went out early, leaving world number one, defending champion and hot favourite Serena Williams an even hotter tip to win the title again. However, if there is one person on the women's tour who can wallop a tennis ball harder than Ms. Williams, then it is Ms. Lisicki; and when they met in the third round, it was the German who walloped harder.

There is though a reason why Ms. Lisicki is ranked only in the mid-20's, her play is brittle. Number 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and others were dispatched with booming serves and groundstrokes, but when she got to the final, her game fell apart. Double faults and unforced errors led to tears, and a relatively easy victory in two sets for Ms. Bartoli, a hardworking if fairly ordinary player, whose main attribute is that she is two-handed on both wings. Still, congratulations to her for hanging in there, and confirming that winning a grand slam tennis tournament is not necessarily about being the best in the world but beating the seven people who turn up to play against you.

On the men's side, there were also shocks. Rafael Nadal, champion in Paris, went out in the first round and defending champion Roger Federer in the second, both to players ranked over 100. For Federer, it was the first time he had not reached the quarter finals of a grand slam tournament for 8 years; and the last time he had been beaten by such a lowly-ranked player was probably when I was still in short trousers. Their predicted quarter final turned out to be between two Poles, whom nobody had heard of. The unlikely chain of events, plus the withdrawal of Jo-Wilfrid Tsonga through injury, were a huge help to second seed Andy Murray, since they were all in his half of the draw.

Murray duly reached the final this afternoon, but could he become the first home-grown male winner since Fred Perry in 1936? Last year Federer stood in the way; this time it was world number one Novak Djokovic. Before the match, I thought that Djokovic would win. But he wasn't at the top of his game, making too many unforced errors and letting sets slip when he was up a break, very unusual for him. In baking heat, he also probably felt the effects of a gruelling five-hour semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro, which was probably the match of the tournament. Murray, on the other hand, was at the top of his game, hung in there when down a break and finally prevailed in three tough sets. Not surprisingly, the home crowd went berserk.

Baking sunshine and a British winner. I said it was a funny Wimbledon.  

Walter Blotscher