The weekend after Wimbledon, Andy Murray's Great Britain and Novak Djokovic's Serbia will play in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup, and the important preparations are about to begin. Murray's grandmother will soon be baking shortbread for the British team.
"It's become one of those silly traditions that I always supply some shortbread for the team," Shirley Erskine, who is in her 80s, told the Wimbledon Diary. "I bake some for every tie, though of course it's not the sort of thing that players should have in their diet. I always find a way of getting the shortbread to the team, whether or not Roy [her husband] and I are travelling to the tie."
A piece of shortbread would be kryptonite for gluten-free Djokovic, who has just opened a vegan restaurant in Monte Carlo. But the British team couldn't survive without the shortbread, which helped fuel their run to last season's title, Britain's first since 1936.
One difficulty for away ties -- such as this one, which will be played in Belgrade -- is keeping the shortbread fresh while going through airport security. "I always seal up the tin to try to keep the shortbread fresh, but then you have to get the tin through security," said Erskine, who is Judy Murray's mother. "You tell them that it's just shortbread inside but the tin still has to be opened and then the seal is broken."
Tight security no longer a surprise
How quickly the players have become accustomed to the higher levels of security at this summer's Championships. No one at the Aorangi Park practice courts seemed to even take a second glance when some heavily-armed police, with sub-machine guns, passed through on patrol.
Quote of the day
"I've gotten fined a number of times for cracking rackets. In fact, I look at it like I didn't crack one at the French Open or Rome, so I was doing really good." Serena Williams, who received a warning for breaking her racket after losing the first set to Christina McHale
Why 2016 scandals are great for tennis
Some might suggest that this has been a trying year for tennis, what with the match-fixing allegations that were made before the Australian Open, and Maria Sharapova's suspension after failing a doping test. But Serena Williams' coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has told the Wimbledon Diary that this has been "great for tennis as it shows no one is above the law".
"Tennis players are human -- they make mistakes and people cheat," said Mouratoglou. "They do things that aren't allowed. But the good thing is that people are caught.
"I think there is much less doping and match-fixing in tennis than there is in other sports, for reasons I can't explain. I'm just sure of it. It's fine if we catch them. This would be a terrible year for tennis if we knew there were cheaters and we didn't do anything about it."
Dry run for Berdych
Don't expect to run into Tomas Berdych, a former finalist, in the Dog and Fox. Or, indeed, in any other pubs in Wimbledon Village. "Do I go to bars? Not really, there's no time," the Czech told the Wimbledon Diary. "That's the last, last, last thing that you look for when you're at a tournament."