(AP)

Chris Evert isn't usually effusive in her praise, unless she's talking about Roger Federer, Martina Navratilova or herself. I don't mean that as an insult. When you've won 18 Grand Slams, you have to be hard to impress.

But the three-time Wimbledon champion was so enthralled by Wednesday's three-set thriller between Caroline Wozniacki and Tamira Paszek that she dubbed it the "best quality first-round match at Wimbledon I've ever seen." The sentence may contain a lot of qualifiers but coming from a woman who won her first Wimbledon in 1974, it's good enough.

Wozniacki and Paszek took part in a three-hour, 12-minute slugfest -- yes, a slugfest involving Caroline Wozniacki -- that included a rain delay, a roof closure, multiple set and match points saved and, in the end, a 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory from the unseeded Paszek. It'll go down as a upset, but a victory by the No. 37 Austrian over the struggling Wozniacki shouldn't qualify. Paszek was coming off a tournament win on the grass

(AP)

Not that you needed a reminder that Wimbledon oozes class, but Prince Charles added a touch of royalty to the proceedings on Wednesday, attending the All England Club tournament for the first time since 1970.

The Prince watched Roger Federer defeat Fabio Fognini, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in 74 minutes. Both players bowed to the Prince and the Duchess but only after Federer gave tips to the Italian before they walked onto Centre Court.

"Fabio, bow at the waist, then shank your backhands. Excellent." (AP)

Federer may have been confused when Charles didn't bow back.

The official Wimbledon website explains:

Centre Court action began today in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, who sat in the Royal Box next to Sir Bruce Forsyth and his wife Wilnelia.

The Duchess arrived at 11.40am and was met by Philip Brook, Chairman of the All England Club, and committee member John Dunningham. She shook hands with an impressive line-up of Service Stewards, and also Chief Steward Andrew Gairdner who retires after this year's Championships.

[...]

Getty Images

Ryan Lochte won Round 1 of his Olympic trial battle with Michael Phelps on Monday night. He took Round 1.5 on Tuesday night, too.

The swimming rivals faced off in a 200-meter freestyle semifinal at the U.S. Olympic trials and Lochte was again the victor, narrowly out-touching the 14-time gold medalist by .02 seconds. They qualified first and second for Wednesday night's final.

[Pat Forde: 40-year-old Janet Evans gets standing ovation in return to pool]

Outside of lane placement for their second trials showdown, Tuesday's result was mostly meaningless. Both swimmers were a cinch to qualify for the final. But after Lochte's dominant performance on Monday night, the stakes felt slightly raised for the routine semifinal. Phelps and Lochte are becoming swimming's Ali and Frazier and each meeting, now matter how insignificant, brings lofty expectations.

The crowd took notice when Phelps and Lochte flipped in tandem at each three walls, then grew louder as Lochte pulled ahead on him

(NBC)

Swimming's fiercest rivalry took center stage Tuesday night at the U.S. Olympic trials. And Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swam too.

Taking a move out of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard's playbook, the world's best breaststroker, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, showed up to watch his rival, Brendan Hansen, compete in a dress rehearsal before their main event later this summer in London. As Kitajima sat in the upper deck, Hansen easily won the 100-meter breaststroke to set up a third Olympic meeting with the Japanese star.

Kitajima swept the first two meetings in both distances in Athens and Beijing, celebrating a win in Greece by pounding the water with his fists and letting out a guttural scream. Hansen has said he kept motivated over the past eight years by making Kitajima's scream his alarm clock tone. The American appeared to give a sarcastic laugh when he saw Kitajima featured on a video screen before the race.

When asked by NBC what he thought his rival would takeaway from his visit

(Getty Images)
Game Point is Busted Racquet's roundup of news, links and stats from around the web.

Love -- Thomaz Bellucci won the first four games of his match against Rafael Nadal on Tuesday. He then lost six of the next eight, was bageled in the first-set tiebreak and sputtered to the finish against the No. 2 seed. The rest of the day's matches on Centre Court weren't much better. Petra Kvitova overcame an early break to begin her title defense with a 6-4, 6-4 win and Andy Murray gave the home crowd a thrill with an easy 1-1-4  victory over the dangerous Nikolay Davydenko.

15 -- Caroline Wozniacki was also on Centre Court on Tuesday. Serena Williams was on Court No. 2. She appeared to be as pleased with the decision as you'd expect, but didn't take the bait when pressed about it. Serena did, however, quoth the bard. "But as Kelly Clarkson says, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,'" she said after her 6-2, 6-4 win.

30 -- Speaking of Wozniacki, her match was suspended at 2-2 in the first

Hurdler-virgin Lolo Jones was on "The Tonight Show" on Monday to talk about hurdling and virginity, and the conversation quickly turned to Tim Tebow, as these things tend to do.

But first, Lolo said a word so dirty it made raunchy comedian Louis C.K. do a double take. She was responding to a question about Twitter when she dropped the bleeped word. It's so dirty I don't know if I can even allude to it. But since it's not immediately obvious which word she says, here's a hint: It sort of sounds like the past tense of tweet.

Lolo then said she wants to take Tebow to church.

Even if her comedy stylings fell a little flat, Lolo Jones deserves credit for her marketing prowess in the lead-up to London. She could have just been that girl who fell from Beijing and was the subject of an NBC puff piece on the first day of the hurdles competition. Instead, she's become a star because of Twitter and her celebration of her personal decision-making.

Her hurdling talents aren't bad either. Jones

Swimmer Stephanie Rice, who swims for a living while wearing a swimsuit in a swimming pool, is catching flak in her native Australia for tweeting a picture of herself in a swimsuit. The nerve of some people.

The three-time gold medalist took the shot of herself wearing a birthday gift from designer Ellie Gonsalves and posted it on Twitter. It made figurative waves one month before she defends her Olympic titles in both individual medleys.

(Twitter)

Some Twitter commenters thought it was another disgrace to an Australian swim team that's recently dealt with a gun controversy. There was also concern that Rice's sponsor, Speedo, would be upset by the photo because -- I don't know -- they don't like free publicity? But, rest assured, Rice isn't even with Speedo anymore!

[ Photos: Olympians in bikinis, body paint ]

Oh, how you disappointment me my Aussie friends. I can see how this would be a big deal in America, what with our Puritanical sensibilities and penchant for affected moral outrage. But in Australia? The land founded as a penal colony where everyone's laid back, even when comparing the size of their knives? She's a swimmer in a swimsuit! That's like getting upset at Michael Phelps for walking around shirtless. Plus, isn't it like 115 degrees during Melbourne summers? I just assumed everyone walked around like this.

My theory: This controversy was ginned up so papers in Australia had a legitimate reason to run the photo. For shame, y'all. We'd never stoop so low in the United States. (See below for more Rice photos.)

Serena Williams' first-round match at Wimbledon was far less eventful than the one she played at the French Open. The four-time tournament champion didn't show any ill effects from her upset loss at Roland Garros and defeated Barbara Zahlavova Strycova 6-2, 6-4.

The most interesting part of her opener, as usual, was the clothing. When you hear "warmup jacket" you think of zipped-up nylon or hoodies. Serena's white, double-breasted Nike number is a bit of a genre bender. I can't tell whether the jacket looks like it belongs to a waiter at a party thrown by a James Bond villain or someone portraying a nurse in a Cinemax movie.

(AP)

In recent years, Serena has opted for cardigans and shawls but wore the same style coat in 2008 and 2009.

The headband is even more interesting. Wimbledon has let players subtly flout the "almost entirely white" rule for years. Colored stripes, details on sleeves and bandanas are prevalent despite the seven rules forbidding such pigmentation. We detailed the trend