Tennis and Twitter seem made for each other, a highly personal sport and a social network that connects stars with the fans who believe they know them.
Vania King's Twitter feed on the WTA home page informs us that she is yearning for "some good Taiwanese food". Good to know. And Julio Goerges revealed that she just had "treatment with my very nice physio". Thank goodness.
Every sport, however, has had more than a few moments when high officials must wish Twitter had a few more filters.
The most recent example: Donald Young, the enfant terrible of American tennis, who last week blasted the US Tennis Association (USTA) for not adequately supporting him, in his telling.
He committed 14 of about 60 characters in his message to expletives, which did nothing to put tennis on a higher intellectual plane, popularise the game or endear us to Young.
He made a different sort of news with impressive results as a junior. In 2005, at age 15, he became the youngest male to win the Australian Open junior championship. Stardom seemed to beckon.
He apparently thought he deserved a wild-card slot into the French Open next month; the USTA typically has a tournament to decide who gets that one berth. Young did not win it.
A few seconds of Twitter madness later, Young was making the wrong kind of news and later apologised. Twitter and tennis? Sometimes it is a form of anti- social media.
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The National selections
Al Ain
5pm: Bolereau
5.30pm: Rich And Famous
6pm: Duc De Faust
6.30pm: Al Thoura
7pm: AF Arrab
7.30pm: Al Jazi
8pm: Futoon
Jebel Ali
1.45pm: AF Kal Noor
2.15pm: Galaxy Road
2.45pm: Dark Thunder
3.15pm: Inverleigh
3.45pm: Bawaasil
4.15pm: Initial
4.45pm: Tafaakhor
