Fourhand: Line judge gets denied; Venus takes a stand

Fourhand is the occasional roundup of various hits and misses on tour.

IMPROPER: Pity the poor Wimbledon line judge whose requests for friendly fist bumps from his peers were shirked.

QUEEN'S CLUB: After being relegated to Court 18 for her second-round match, a three-set victory, Venus Williams was asked by the press what she thought of the idea of a five-time Wimbledon men's singles champion being put on such an outer court. "I haven’t seen that in the scheduling yet,” she pithily replied. Venus continued, "To make it crystal clear, like I said, I wasn’t unhappy to play on Court 11 sic]. I just want equality for men’s and women’s matches, that’s what I’m unhappy about ... I have no problem where I play. I’ll play on the practice courts if I need to. I have no problem with that." She went on to note that All England Club officials have to [back up their desire for equality with action.

THE ONE: Tom Perrotta wrote an intriguing piece for TheWall Street Journal about how Dominic Thiem graduated from a "timid" two-handed backhand to a "thunderous" one-fisted stroke on that side. That move has certainly paid off, despite the fact that he suffered a surprising 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) loss to Jiri Vesely in the second round of Wimbledon.

PERFECT 10: Wrist sling and all, Rafael Nadal went on Twitter to photo salute his 10 million followers upon reaching that social-media milestone. That's an average of 2 million accrued annually since he joined the platform in July 2011. His closest competitors in this regard, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, have 5.56 million and 6 million Twitter followers, respectively. Meanwhile, Serena Williams (6.24 million), Sania Mirza (3.88 million) and Maria Sharapova (3.1 million) also boast outsized followings.

BONUS: Nick Bollettieri has hyped Garbine Muguruza as a better overall player than Maria Sharapova. He said she’s not as hard a ball-striker as Monica Seles, but has better net hands than the former No. 1 did. He should know, as he coached both at different points. Even so, Muguruza fell in Wimbledon's second round, one short year after reaching the final and losing to Serena Williams. She admitted that she was tired after beating Williams in the French Open final a few weeks ago, and this simply reveals how tough it is to win one major after another. Serena should be hailed for her fortitude in this respect. Meanwhile, Muguruza, if she's going to become the captivating star some are hoping for, might consider summoning some answers when "softball" interview questions are posed to her. When sporting a soccer jersey, one should anticipate a question about an athlete one would like to meet. "I'm so boring," she quips twice in the clip below. She said it, not us.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.