Court circular

We all know how it feels. Brand new pair of tennis shoes, gleaming white, pristine laces. You really look the part. Then, three hours later, most of the skin on your feet comes away when you take off your socks.

Blisters are agony, as any amateur tennis player will tell you, so the sight of the ladies' defending champion, Conchita Martinez, unwrapping her feet in obvious discomfort on the Centre Court yesterday will have proved to the rest of us that the top stars are human after all...