Some years ago I was playing golf somewhere with the Seniors des Quatres Ligues during the French Open Tennis tournament.  The TV in the clubhouse was showing the tennis and one of my fellow golfers was standing at the bar gesturing at the TV and sounding off about mon fils this and mon fils the other.

I was quite impressed at the thought that I was in the company of the father of a tennis ace.  It was some time, maybe even a few days, till I discovered he had not been saying mon fils but Monfils.

He's Murray's opponent today and I hope that the rain in Paris lets up sufficiently for the match to take place.  I've suffered from rain myself recently.  I went to play golf a couple of weeks ago not only for the first time this season, not only for the first time this calendar year but for the first time since Lothianburn went bust last Autumn.

I got as far as the 7th when I had to leave the course because of lightning.  The storm had clearly set in for a while so that was that.  This week the rain started when I reached the second tee, no lightning thank goodness.  It rained with increasing intensity till about the 9th then eased to a drizzle, taking up the attack again the 16th and holding its own until I came off.

I hope Murray and Monfils have better luck this afternoon or rather this evening since it doesn't look as though they'll get started before 6.30 French time.  That probably means we won't see all of the match today.