1. Reportage:

Wimbledon's showcase Centre Court at the All England Club1. Reportage:

Belgian Justine Henin’s posts neatly traced the ecstasy-to-agony of advancing in a Grand Slam tournament as its touted comeback queen—and then failing. First up, there was jubilant tweeting: “Happy after this first victory! I felt very good on the court… Let’s go step by step!! Good night everybody!” This was updated with the news that she was enjoying, “this sunny day off with my family before the big match tomorrow!” Alas, it was not to be. The match up, with fellow Belgian former retiree Kim Clisters, left Henin forlornly tweeting. “Difficult wake up this morning… ;-( Take the plane back to Belgium this morning… Thanks for your support, your messages”—of which there were 266 on her official Facebook page at time of writing.

2. Self (and sibling) Promotion:

Never shy about Tweeting forward (especially if it will sell a few books): Green Day fan Serena Williams

“My book “COME TO WIN” is in bookstores today,” frothed second-seed titan Venus Williams in a tweet. Fair enough, but scroll down for more of the none-too-subtle same, like the earlier, poetic refrain: “If you would like to get a sneak peak or learn more about my new book, Come to Win, visit…[blatant plug excluded]”. Her top-seed sis Serena was little better in the shameless-promo stakes, spouting the following blatant pluggery: “Thank you for purchasing my book but now you have to buy Vee’s book.” Sisters are doing it for themselves, as Annie Lennox once sang – and each other, it seems. At least the elder  Williams sister got to blow off steam at a Green Day concert, enthusing, like an overexcited teenager, about an apparent encounter with the band’s drummer on 20 Jun: “Omg just talked to Tre Cool with @greenday!!! So happy!!” Bless.

3. Cross-Sport Twitter

Presumably the kind of expression Andy Murray wears when he sends a sweet Tweet home

World number four, Britain’s Andy Murray, tweeted his response to England’s World cup woes, on 27 June posting: “How on earth has the linesman and referee missed that?!Regardless of no technology, that mistake should never happen, worst mistake ever” The topic? Frank Lampard’s goal-that-never-was on the way to England’s 4-1 defeat by Germany. The British football and tennis love-in went fully cross-court when he reported that, among good luck messages flooding his tweet-box, it is obviously, “Always nice to get one from david beckham.” (Graciously, though, Murray was straining “to read them all!”) When it came to the business of being “Second on centre court tomorrow,” Murray tweeted, somewhat regretfully, “Not up to much tonight. Food and rest. Exciting.”

Top-ranking American player Andy Roddick also focused on the football—tweeting on the Lampard travesty: “this is unreal…” before lamenting FIFA’s continued snubbing of the kind of technological aids helping eliminate such errors in his own sport: “I mean is it even a possibility that they dont have replay in the next world cup?” He later attached a sarcastically retouched pic to the message: “What the linesman and the referee saw in Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal in today’s game. “LOLOL!” indeed – until, that is, Roddick’s hopes of making a second successive Wimbledon final were ended by Taiwan’s unseeded Yen-Hsun Lu. The world number 82 becomes Asia’s first Grand Slam quarter-finalist since Japan’s Shuzo Matsuoka in 1995. China’s Li Na has also made it to the Wimbledon quarterfinals after beating Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska.