Game, set and match

A week after British papers dedicated the whole backpage (and some of the front) to qualifier Chris Eaton for beating a 114-ranked Serb player and going through to the second round of Wimbledon, the public were saved being served a whole newspaper dedicated to Andy Murray as the last British hope crashed out.

World No2 Rafael Nadal, bidding to claim his first Wimbledon title, hammered Murray in Wednesday's quarter-final 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, ending the Murraymania at this year's tournament and leaving Murray Mound in a disappointed heap.

What, you wonder, are the thousands of Murray fans going to do with themselves now until the next Wimbledon? Well, they could read the 21-year old's autobiography for a start. Yes, you read that right. An autobiography from someone who has never reached a semi-final of a Grand Slam, has won five titles, is ranked outside the top 10 – and is, I will stress again, still only 21.

You're bound to find a lot of interesting reading in it.

Try this extract for example: "Bananas are a pathetic fruit. They don't look great, they're not straight, and I don't like the black bit at the bottom. And it squashes easily. If you put one in your bag and someone kicks it, it spatters about all over the place."

Sumptuous reading which, if analysed carefully as many undoubtedly will, also explains why the Scotsman lost so badly to Nadal after doing so well in fighting back from two sets down against Richard Gasquet in the previous round.

The Spaniard is renowned for munching on bananas in between games. The moment Nadal peeled the "pathetic fruit" on centre court, Murray did not "look great", was "not straight" (posture wise, that is) and Nadal "spattered" him "about all over the place".

In the football world, Italy re-hired their 2006 World Cup winning coach, Marcello Lippi, after firing Roberto Donadoni for losing to Spain on penalties in Euro 2008.

A perfectly understandable reason and the norm in football these days. If John Terry slips and misses a penalty in the Champions League final, you must fire the Chelsea manager.

While we are on Chelsea managers, Luiz Felipe Scolari has made his first signing, securing Deco from Barcelona for a mere £8 million (Dh58.4m) this week.

Turkey coach Fatih Terim's contract has been extended by two years to 2012 and deservedly so. The Emperor's band of gladiators provided great entertainment as they reached the semi-finals and even led for a few minutes with Terim almost having to bring himself on against Germany after losing so many players to injury in the previous rounds.

Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council (ICC) have being holding their annual meeting in Dubai this week with one of the main issues on the menu being whether Zimbabwe should or shouldn't be allowed to play international cricket.

Ironically the meeting was only moved here after the English government would not guarantee issuing a visa to the Zimbabwean ICC member to attend the meeting at Lords.

Watch out for news about that ICC meeting and finally congratulations to Spain on a superb Euro 2008 win.