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McIlroy shares wisdom with Murray

Andy Murray and John McEnroe greet the lucky sixth-former who won the chance to meet his heroes © Getty Images

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Wimbledon Day Eight Gallery
Women's round-up: Sharapova & Lisicki power on
What They Said

Suits you
Rory McIlroy took his US Open celebrations to Wimbledon on Tuesday, making the most of his break from golf by hanging out with John McEnroe and Britain's Andy Murray. Dressed formally in a suit and tie, which did make the Ulsterman resemble something of a sixth-form pupil meeting his heroes, McIlroy was asked whether he had any advice for Murray, who will play Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. He said: "Not really. He's playing awesome. He looked great yesterday. Keep doing what you're doing."

Andy-capped
Andy Murray may be one of the best tennis players on the planet but the Scot openly admits his ability on the golf course doesn't match up. "I used to play a bit when I was younger," Murray said. "My brother (doubles player Jamie) played really well. He played off like 3 or 4 (handicap) when he was 16. I'm more like 14, 15."

Come on Tim!
Andy Murray recently bemoaned Centre Court fans shouting out 'come on Tim' during his matches, and maybe he'll be glad he wasn't in action when Rory McIlroy visited SW19 for the day. McIlroy is a huge Henman supporter and may have come to blows with Murray if he joined in the legendary chants. "I'm a big tennis fan," he said. "I grew up watching Tim Henman here at Wimbledon and cheering him on every summer. Now that's been passed over to Andy. We're all behind him and hopefully he can win his first Grand Slam."

Following in Steffi's shoes
The Sabine Lisicki fairytale continues and, after beating Marion Bartoli in three sets - smashing 52 winners in the process - she has become the first German in 12 years to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam. It's an incredible show of resilience from Lisicki, a wildcard entrant whose 2010 was decimated by injury.

Lisicki's luck to run out?
Lisicki's played well above expectations so far, and she'll have to repeat that trick against Maria Sharapova, who looked seriously impressive against Dominika Cibulkova. Looking at the past record, the omens aren't good for Lisicki - she's played Sharapova once before, in Miami earlier this year, and lost 6-2 6-0. Probably best to forget all about that one...

Mighty Maria
On one side of the net, Sharapova, six foot two inches. Staring back at her, Cibulkova, five foot three. You might have expected Cibulkova to try and mix it up, forcing Sharapova to do plenty of running - but no, she decided to trade blows from the baseline, in what must rank as one of the oddest strategies employed at the tournament so far. Cibulkova was simply blasted away by her opponent's power, losing 6-1 6-1 in exactly an hour. Now where did she put that plan B?

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