Murray will be cut down to size now Nadal is a green giant

Despite my many and various reservations about Murray, I will be thrilled if he wins today and losing my shirt will be a small price to pay for another tartan triumph. However, it won' t happen. Richard Gasquet outplayed Murray for almost three sets on Monday and a player of firmer resolve than this notoriously shrinking French violet would have held on to win.

This is not to detract a jot from Murray's heroics, just to inject a bit of realism into the matter. On the right day, of course, anyone can beat anybody else at Wimbledon but the truth is Nadal is different class. And Sunday's likely final against Roger Federer should be awesome.

Now that we have an era of equal pay, even if not for equal effort, I was looking forward to writing as rapturously about the ladies singles but I can't.

For the first time since 1927 all four top seeds failed to reach the quarterfinals. That's because form is not the same as class and all these pretty little 'here today, gone tomorrow' Slavs have little more than promise to commend them. Women's tennis remains as uncompetitive as ever and the grisly prospect of another Williams v Williams final looks increasingly likely.

Despite both of them making it pretty clear they have other priorities in life than tennis, class in their case is indeed forever. They've got it and have been putting a host of young pretenders to the sword so far this fortnight. Mystic Mellor predicts they will continue to do so. But it will be an awful comment on the state of women's tennis if they're both still there on Saturday.

Thus far this has been a superb Wimbledon, played out before today in glorious weather and once you get in, it's great.

But outside it's like a war zone, with all manner of fences and barriers that make downtown Beirut look quite understated-Everywhere there are people in uniform telling you what you can and can't do and it's oppressive.

The only people who are loving it are the police. Plenty of sun, loads of overtime and a lot of innocuous middle class people to boss around. And not a criminal in sight.

Who says a policeman's lot is not a happy one.

Deco isn't in Frank's league when the going gets tough

A lot of people, some Chelsea fans among them, are smacking their lips in anticipation that the arrival of Deco will herald a move by Frank Lampard to Italy. And it probably will - but no way am I pleased about it.

Lampard may be 30 but so is Deco. And I know which one I trust to try the hardest when the chips are down, and he isn't a Portugal international.

Barcelona are not sorry to be rid of Deco, with the club making it clear they wanted to sell him. Will Deco work hard at Chelsea? We have to hope so, but not as hard as Lampard, I'll bet you.

Even more worrying is the rumour that Ronaldinho is on his way to Stamford Bridge.

That's credible. The Brazilian's also washed up at Barca and the bright lights of London are a stage worthy of the international playboy he has now become. But as for football, of course he's a class player, though is he any more likely to show it in Chelsea colours than Andriy Shevchenko ever did? Frankly, I doubt it.

Buying superannuated superstars isn't the way to build lasting success at Chelsea; it suggests to me that the dominant force in the transfer market is still Roman Abramovich, not Big Phil Scolari.

But then, as Robert Walpole famously said, every man hath his price, and we now know that Big Phil's is £6million a year.

Mugabe shames cricket

Astonishingly, though even Zimbabwe's excessively tolerant neighbours are turning against Robert Mugabe, the International Cricket Council are likely to keep them as members when they meet today. That will force us either to let their team in for the Twenty20 World Cup next year, thereby handing Mugabe a propaganda coup on a plate, or have the tournament moved elsewhere.

It's said India, Mugabe's main mate at the ICC, will persuade Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to vote NO, too.

Cricket used to pride itself on the highest standards in sport. No longer. Betting scandals have been the game's main downside, but tolerating Mugabe runs all that close.

How sad the advice of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has called for a ban to express the world's revulsion at the dictator's activities, is likely to be thrown back in his face.

IOC must show no mercy

A Chinese swimmer has been banned for testing positive for an illegal steroid.

He says he ingested it innocently through eating pork tainted with the stuff.

Yet drugs and Chinese swimmers have been frequently linked since a scandal in Australia a few years back and all this begs yet another question about the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. Will the International Olympic Committee be as rigorous in testing for illegal substances during these Games because of potential embarrassment to their Chinese hosts?

It's awful that one even has to ask the question but so craven have the International Olympic Committee been to the Chinese, it wouldn't surprise me if they did lay off.

Platini talks Euro trash

It would be nice to think England were missed at Euro 2008 but we weren't.

In truth it was a super tournament, too good for UEFA not to feel compelled to mess it up for the future. Which they are about to do.

All 53 members have voted to expand the finals to 24 countries by 2016. All that will do is dilute the quality but once again its payback time for all the minnows who supported Michel Platini's election as president of European football's governing body.

Announcing it, Platini said it was a good idea because "countries like England have the quality to take part".

I'm not sure who I detest most - him for that jibe or our overpaid, fake superstars for screwing up England's qualification, a national humiliation which continues to be felt by everyone but them.