Headhunter: French fancy

HOLDING COURT:A WIMBLEDON MISCELLANY

Sabine Lisicki's (pictured) victory over the number-one seed Maria Sharapova perpetuated an interesting sequence of results for the German. This year was the third time in four that she has beaten the reigning French Open champion at Wimbledon.

In 2009 she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, accounted for Li Na in 2011 and then put paid to Sharapova's interests on Monday.

Sharapova's defeat means that she will no longer hold the number-one world ranking come next Monday morning.

Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska will battle it out for top spot. There are a number of permutations but if Azarenka reaches the final at the All England club then she will definitely take over as the world number one.

Hawk eye: Rufus ruffles Azarenka's feathers

Rufus, the Harris hawk that patrols the skies over Wimbledon before and after the days play, is recovering from his kidnap ordeal. He was taken from a car last Thursday night but found in his cage on Wimbledon Common by a member of the public at the weekend who gave him to the RSPCA. They in turn restored him to his owners.

He wasn't on duty at the start of the week but he may have left a legacy in the upper echelons of Centre Court. When Victoria Azarenka was about to serve at 6-1, 4-0 in her game against Ana Ivanovic, feathers started to fall onto the court.

It was a bizarre sight because the roof was closed at the time but feathers continued to fall to the point that Azarenka abandoned trying to serve and started picking them up.

Run ends: Baker bows out

Given his misfortune with injuries it seems apposite that Brian Baker's only other brush with trying to qualify for Wimbledon should possess a similar theme. The 27-year-old American was beaten 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 by Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber yesterday after he came through three qualifying matches but on the only other occasion he tried to make the main draw at the All England club it ended in his first outing.

It dates back to 2005 when he had to retire with a knee injury after slipping with the score at 1-1 in the first set. He was playing some bloke called Novak Djokovic at the time.

Friends: The one where Djokovic always wins

Novak Djokovic admitted he found it very difficult emotionally when beating his boyhood friend and fellow Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-1, 6-3.

Mind you he's had plenty of practice having done so on 11 previous occasions.

The two are Davis Cup team-mates and will play together in doubles at the London Olympics.

Djokovic admitted: "It's hard to kind of express the emotions, you know, to celebrate or to be angry (on court)," he said on playing against his friend.

"It's difficult to know what to do and how to behave on the court when you're playing one of your best friends. The first match we played was a local tournament when I was eight and he was nine years old. So we go back a long time. We won the Davis Cup together. We are very good friends in private life."