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Rufus, a hawk used at Wimbledon to scare away pigeons, was returned three days after it was stolen from a car in London.

He and his specially-designed box were abducted sometime Thursday night from a car. (A car? He stays in a car?!) The box was found the next morning. Rufus was missing. For two days, Wimbledon officials and Rufus' handler searched for the harris hawk and tried to use the public to raise awareness. It seemed to work; sometime on Sunday, Rufus was returned to a national animal charity in London. He was found somewhere on the Wimbledon common.

His handler reports that Rufus is expected to return back to work later in the tournament.

What I want to know is whether the All England Club was overrun by pigeons in Rufus' absence. In the Disney film adaptation of the tribulations of Rufus (voiced by Stringer Bell using his real accent), a group of pigeons, led by the dude from House, take over the AELTC with a plan to invade a Wimbledon final featuring notorious pigeon-hater

(Getty Images)Boom, boom.

Maria Sharapova is out of Wimbledon and could lose her No. 1 ranking after suffering a fourth-round defeat to big serving Sabine Lisicki on Monday.

Lisicki controlled the match from the outset, moving Sharapova around the court with her big groundstrokes, controlling her service games and maintaining enough composure to close out the match, 6-4, 6-3. The German hit a second-serve ace down the middle on her second match point to upset the reigning French Open champion.

The topsy-turvy WTA doesn't lend itself to big upsets and this was no exception. Lisicki has made the quarters and semis in her last two Wimbledon appearances. Her game is tailor-made for the quick grass courts and she seems to know it. She has a confidence on grass that escapes her when she moves to clay or hard courts. The injuries that have nagged her for her entire career seem to dissipate.

"I just went for my shots from the first point on," she told the BBC after the match. "I felt great out there. It's

Of all the moments when it felt like Roger Federer might lose to Julien Benneteau on Friday, none was more pronounced than after this spectacular point in the crucial fourth-set tiebreaker. Federer led 4-3 and had an opportunity to take a mini-break on the 29th-seeded Frenchman. He appeared to get a lucky break when a backhand hit the net cord and bounced behind a running Benneteau.

Federer getting to Benneteau's shot was almost as impressive as his opponent's quick reflex move. Look at how much court he covered to get to the ball and how he managed to place the shot like it was a routine point.

[Related: Roger Federer survives Wimbledon scare, beats Julien Benneteau]

The six-time champion went on to win the tiebreak and the match to keep alive his streak of 32-straight Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances.

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Roger Federer avoided another giant killing Friday at Wimbledon, coming back from two sets down to defeat No. 29 seed Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-1 to advance to the fourth round, keeping alive his bid for a seventh title and giving himself a chance to extend his record streak of 32 consecutive major quarterfinals.

The world No. 3 defeated Benneteau almost exactly 24 hours after his longtime rival, Rafael Nadal, was stunned by Lukas Rosol in one of the biggest upsets in the history of tennis.

It will go down as just another win for the all-time winningest Grand Slam champion, but he was as close to defeat as possible without facing a match point. Five times in the fourth set Benneteau was two points from victory. He didn't get to match point on any of those opportunities.

"I'm very fortunate," Federer said after the match.

[Watch: Roger Federer and Julien Benneteau go all out in crucial tiebreaker]

He was broken at 4-4 in the first set, then never recovered from a

When you're going good, you're going good. And since Novak Djokovic is going good, he's able to hit a stutter-step backhand that glances off the netpost and easily bounces in for a winner.

The world No. 1 dropped the first set to Radek Stepanek on Friday before cruising to a four-set victory.

(Getty Images)Big serving Ivo Karlovic was called for 11 foot faults in a tight 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (4) loss to Andy Murray Thursday at Wimbledon. He thinks he knows why.

The Croat blasted tournament officials after the match, suggesting that Murray was getting favorable treatment because he's a Brit. It was a blistering attack. Some of the highlights:

• "I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam, Centre Court."

• "It was outrageous. It's Wimbledon and they do this. This is bulls---."

• "It was never called when it was like 30-Love or 40-Love. It was always when it was 30-All or in a tiebreak. Then I stand a little bit back but they still called. So it was outrageous. I mean, this is BS. I feel cheated."

• "The whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. I'm angry about it, a little bit pissed, because I don't expect it here. Even though it is against an English guy who they always want to win."

• "In my whole life, ever since I was 8 years old, I didn't do this many foot faults. It was like 11.

(Getty Images)John McEnroe called Rafael Nadal's loss to Lukas Rosol the biggest upset in tennis history. We tentatively agree. The world No. 100, with 19 career wins to his credit, upsets the 11-time Grand Slam champion and five-time defending finalist. There's too much instant hyperbole in sports today. This isn't one of those cases.

Yet we do need some perspective to determine where the upset ranks in sports history. If Nadal goes into a career tailspin (which we don't think will happen) or Rosol suddenly turns from a 26-year-old journeyman into a top-10 player (ditto) then the events of Thursday take on a different context. If Nadal gets back to winning Grand Slams on all surfaces and Rosol hovers around the lower reaches of the top 100, then McEnroe will be correct and we'll have just witnessed a sports miracle.

For the time being, at least, does McEnroe's comment hold up? We looked at some of the biggest upsets in tennis and sports history to find where Rosol over Nadal ranks.

Tennis

If we assume Nadal is still in his prime, there's no comparable upset in modern tennis. This is a list of the earliest Slam losses by other great male players in their prime:

Roger Federer -- semifinal

Roy Emerson -- Fourth round

Pete Sampras -- First round (Sampras' losses have asterisks. The first-round loss was on clay, which was never an upset for the big-hitting American. He did lose in the third round of the 1996 Australian Open while in his prime, but that was to Mark Philippoussis, who later became a top-10 player and two-time Slam finalist. If Rosol makes a similar rise, another reevaluation maybe needed.)

Bjorn Borg -- quarterfinal

Rod Laver -- fourth round

Nadal has them all beat. But even players who experienced less success didn't lose to No. 100 players during their top years. Jimmy Connors never did, nor did John McEnroe. Andre Agassi lost to No. 281 Doug Flach at Wimbledon in 1996, but even without knowing what Agassi was going through at the time (as we do know), nobody was ever going to compare Agassi's consistency with Nadal's.

The three most famous upsets in recent Grand Slam history are Sampras losing to George Bastl in the second round of Wimbledon in 2002, Lori McNeil over Steffi Graf in 1994 and Peter Doohan over Boris Becker in 1987. But Sampras was one Slam away from retirement and two years away from his last major title. It's not even in the same ballpark. Another is Lori McNeil's defeat of No. 1 Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1994. This is the most comparable to Rosol/Nadal since Graf was still at the height of her powers (she won six of her next seven Slams after the loss). McNeil was no slouch, though. She had defeated Graf two years before at the WTA Championships and was a former Slam semifinalist at the U.S. Open in 1987 (having defeated Chris Evert to get there). Graf > Nadal. But Rosol

There was another upset involving Nadal that could qualify. As good as he's been, Rafa isn't invulnerable on grass. He was on his dominant surface of clay when No. 25 Robin Soderling beat him at the 2009 French Open. We later learned that Nadal was suffering from injuries and family difficulties, while Soderling became a top-five player. Still, at the time, this was equally shocking.

(Getty Images)To quote the late Jack Buck, "I don't believe what I just saw."

World No. 100 Lukas Rosol stunned two-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in one of the biggest upsets in the 135-year history of the tournament. Nadal had made the finals in his last five Wimbledon appearances and had played in the last four Grand Slam finals overall. He was 17 days removed from winning the French Open.

The 26-year-old Czech is playing in his first Wimbledon. He was 0-5 in qualifying matches at the All England Club and had never won a single ATP match on grass courts since joining the tour in 2005. He had 19 wins in his career. Nadal had 41 this year. But behind a powerful serve and fearless returns, Rosol took Nadal deep into a first-set tiebreaker, then refused to fold after dropping it 11-9, winning the next two sets after early breaks.

The players exchanged a testy moment in the third set. A frustrated Nadal complained to the chair umpire about Rosol's antics before his