If Andy Murray is hoping to avoid becoming involved in politics -- he's not going to be divulging whether he voted for Brexit -- his coach Ivan Lendl's views are on the record. The Wimbledon Diary has seen messages that Lendl exchanged with President George Bush Senior, with the correspondence confirming that the former Wimbledon runner-up has long been a Republican voter.
Some of the messages were in 1992, at a time when Lendl's playing career was coming to an end and when Bush was running for re-election to the White House, a contest that he would lose to Bill Clinton. Archived in the George Bush Presidential Library is a handwritten note that Lendl sent, which reads: "Dear Mr President, Samantha [Lendl's wife] and I wanted to take a moment to wish you the best of luck during this year's presidential campaign. It's my first chance to vote and of course I'm voting for you and the Republican Party."
Bush replied: "The polls stink, but I remain confident of victory. Give Samantha a hug. I still follow your tennis actions closely."
Tattoo parlour philosophy
Looking for some philosophical insights? Need some life guidance? Then why not come to Wimbledon and 'read' the players' tattoos? You could start with Britain's Daniel Evans, who will play Roger Federer in the third round, and who has these words inked on his skin: "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future."
Or perhaps you prefer the thoughts in Svetlana Kuznetsova's tattoo: "Pain doesn't kill me - I kill the pain." Borna Coric, a young Croatian, would like you to know -- for it's there to all to see on his bicep -- that, "there's nothing worse in this life than being ordinary".
Clearly, Stan Wawrinka's approach to tennis, and to life, is a little different, as he has this Samuel Beckett quote tattooed on his arm: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Janko Tipsarevic, meanwhile, has opted for a line from Dostoyevsky's 'The Idiot': "Beauty will save the world."
Touts turn the air blue as they haggle over pitch
Never mind the rivalries on the grass; there's no more intense competition in this part of London than that between the ticket touts. Tennis fans coming out of Southfields station, which is the closest London Underground stop to the All England Club, were greeted by a group of touts shouting and swearing at each other in a dispute over who could work the prime piece of pavement opposite the exit. John McEnroe would have blushed at some of the language they were using.
John Lloyd's Trump card
Lendl's friendship with Bush isn't the only strong link between tennis and the Republican Party. John Lloyd, a former Australian Open singles finalist and the ex-husband of ESPN analyst Chris Evert, is on good terms with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. Lloyd plays golf at Trump's course in Florida. And the Wimbledon Diary has learned that the billionaire introduces the Briton to others in the clubhouse as "the great John Lloyd, a winner of three Grand Slam titles".
What 'The Donald' doesn't say is that those were mixed doubles titles.