- Wimbledon Diary
Federer lives in a nanny state
There are now three nannies in Roger Federer's support staff, with the trio all understood to be here in south-west London with him. Federer, whose wife Mirka gave birth to twin boys Leo and Lenny last month, had already been employing two nannies to help with the care of their four-year-old twin daughters Myla Rose and Charlene Riva. And now he has hired a third (but not a fourth, so there isn't a nanny for each child).
Should Federer go through the draw at the All England Club, he would become the first man to win eight Wimbledon titles. For the moment he is tied with Pete Sampras on seven. Victory this fortnight would also make Federer the first father of four to win a grand slam title. The size of Federer's entourage is such that he has hired not one but two houses in Wimbledon Village.
One of the libertines?
Ernests Gulbis, a semi-finalist at the French Open this month, is the closest that modern men's tennis comes to a libertine with a racket. But Gulbis, whose father is one of the richest men in Latvia, has described suggestions that he blew his Paris prize-money at the blackjack tables as "bull****". "I'm a little bit crazy, but I'm not stupid," he said. Gulbis' denials are sometimes better than the original stories. I once asked Gulbis whether it was true that he travelled to tournaments in his father's private jet, to which he responded: "Yes, and I have a helicopter, a submarine and a spaceship."
Angry, grumpy, stroppy, moody, grouchy, shouty and stompy
As Andy Murray admits, he's been called "angry, grumpy, stroppy, moody, grouchy, shouty and stompy". That admission came on the pages of the Beano, with Murray guest-editing a special edition; he was recalling the times when his parents asked him to tidy his bedroom.
According to Murray's editor's letter, Dennis the Menace has dared the Wimbledon champion to break the rules at the All England Club: "Dennis reckons rules are there to be broken. He's dared me to wear red and black (against the rules) and a pair of frilly knickers on my head (not sure if there's definitely a rule against this, but I told them that there was)".
Mark Hodgkinson is the author of Ivan Lendl: The Man Who Made Murray. He is writing daily for ESPN during Wimbledon
