(ESPN)

The narrow path between the umpire's chair and the net post leads to some awkward encounters when two players try to squeeze by at the same time. Rafael Nadal usually avoids that potential dance by letting his opponents walk through first. While struggling with relative unknown Lukas Rosol on Thursday, Nadal uncharacteristically went first, then dipped his shoulder into his opponent as he brushed past him.

Que pasa, Rafa?

Nadal was down a break in the third set and was apparently frustrated with Rosol's pre-serve movements and noises. The Czech danced around on the baseline and was making heavy breathing sounds while the deliberate Nadal prepared to serve. It evidently got into Nadal's head. He complained to the chair umpire about the noises but was offered no support. That incident, coupled with his own poor play, manifested itself in the shoulder dip.

It was a rare foray into tough-guy mode for Nadal. He doesn't play the role well and it didn't serve him in Thursday's match, which

(Getty Images)Andy Roddick and Andy Murray are among the men's tennis players to support recent comments made by Gilles Simon supporting unequal pay for women at major tennis tournaments. Top female players, including Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, not surprisingly, disagree.

A sampling of quotes regarding the equal pay between men and women at Grand Slams:

Gilles Simon: "The equality in salaries isn't something that works in sport. Men's tennis remains more attractive than women's tennis at the moment."

Maria Sharapova: "I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his."

Gilles Simon: "I have the feeling that men's tennis is actually more interesting than women's tennis. When that Shakira is singing, she is earning more money than most of the men because everyone wants to see her. That's it."

Serena Williams: "She's way hotter than he is."

Andy Roddick: "Based on any other business in the world, the more you sell the more you make."

Gilles Simon: "It's not about me, one

(Getty Images)

Pippa Middleton made a return to Wimbledon's Centre Court and saw Serena Williams do the same.

The four-time Wimbledon champion played a dominant two sets in front of Princess Kate's sister, defeating Melinda Czink 6-1, 6-4 in a second-round match.

Serena lost seven points on serve and didn't face a break point during the match. She took the first set in 20 minutes, hit 10 aces and won 96 percent of first-serve points.

"It was great to be back on Centre Court," Serena said, perhaps referring to the pageantry of the stadium or maybe letting it be known that she didn't appreciate being stuck on Court 2 for her first-round match. "It's amazing and I served really well."

Maria Sharapova was also in action on Wednesday. The world No. 1 struggled as her second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova continued after it was halted Wednesday for darkness, but she rebounded mightily in the third set, winning 6-0. Sharapova is 12-1 this year in three-set matches.

(Getty Images)

A prematurely written tweet on Wimbledon's official feed and a stray click of the keyboard led 268,000 Twitter followers to believe that Maria Sharapova had lost the first set on Wednesday's second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova.

As Sharapova was saving four set points against the Bulgarian grass-court killer, the official Wimbledon feed accidentally sent out a message heralding Pironkova's win.

@Wimbledon: Pironkova's up to her old tricks again. She's taken the 1st set against Sharapova. Is there going to be another upset?

It's not hard to picture how it went down. Someone wrote the tweet as Pironkova played her first set point, intent on hitting "Enter" immediately after she won the point. An accidental click, followed by sheer panic and terror, probably followed.

Whoever runs the account deleted the erroneous tweet almost immediately. But instead of acting like the mistake never happened, the Wimbledon account responded to multiple followers who called out the error and

They're like a modern day Burns and Allen!

Rachel McAdams was excellent in "Mean Girls," but I feel like producers missed an opportunity to bring Maria Sharapova to Hollywood. She plays the disaffected, too-cool-for-school role so well. "Of course it's cute, you're the owner" and "I certainly don't have a special diet for the dog." That's some Regina George goodness right there.

Novak Djokovic wasn't bad himself. Saying Pierre has a French name, was bought in Germany and is considered Serbian is pretty solid. I'd have loved the exchange even more if I wasn't cynically convinced it was conceived by Novak and Maria's sponsor, Head.

(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)
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