WimbleSpin, Day 11: Drake canvasses SW19; Bouchard meets Swift

WimbleSpin harbors this regal fortnight's latest off-court news.

THAT'S A RAPDrake returned to Wimbledon and took in Serena Williams' three-set quarterfinal match against Victoria Azarenka from a couple rows behind Oracene Price and Venus Williams. He also hugged on Novak Djokovic, John McEnroe, and Venus, later allegedly dining out with Serena and Caroline Wozniacki, although the Daily Mail piece published no images of the trio actually together. Of course, the Canadian singer-rapper is hardly alone in his Wimble-love, joined in the stands by the likes of Richard Branson, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, and Prince William and Princess Kate.

SWIFTLY DISMISSED  Oh, Canada. You continue to make news. First-round loser Eugenie Bouchard went home to Montreal and then appeared in a backstage photo alongside Taylor Swift after the singer's show there. Somewhere Serena says, "The difference between backstage and on-stage cannot be discounted."

TIME WARP  It's true: Wimbledon chair umpires, and officials at all pro tournaments, should not be calling time violations about the seconds taken between points solely at crucial stages of matches. It's just not fair. Pascal Maria's tweaking of Vasek Pospisil in the latter's quarterfinal bout with Andy Murray was unnecessary and ill-timed. And it did not come to pass that Pospisil beat Murray, but that didn't mean doubles partner Jack Sock wasn't rooting from afar (and apparently in the dark).

GRUNT = YAWN  A lineup of notably British TV presenters and former athletes has eagerly taken to admonishing Maria Sharapova both on air and via social media about her shrieking. Thing is, as with so many stunning points and matches, she gets the last word: "I have nothing to say. There's nothing new about it." Advantage, Maria.

Sharapova, who gets Serena in the semifinals today, famously hasn't beaten her pseudo-rival since 2004, and the likes of . Where Evert misspeaks is in saying that Serena has had no rival for the past 10 years. Azarenka mostly counts as one, despite a lopsided head-to-head count, and the likes of Justine Henin (2007), Kim Clijsters (2011), and Venus (2009) have all powered to major titles and finals more recently.

Related: Here's some tweeted perspective on the differences between Sharapova's 2-17 mark against Serena, and Azarenka's similar 3-17 record versus the WTA Tour's undisputed No. 1:

EMOJI ALERT Roger Federer couldn't help himself from getting sort of involved in the Twitter emoji ballyhoo over NBA player DeAndre Jordan being courted by multiple teams. The father of four inserted himself in the conversation by sending a decidedly dad-like tweet to Kobe Bryant:

MUST READ Adweek has an intriguing piece about how top tennis stars leverage their social media accounts with branded posts about their sponsors' products. You'll be interested to see who has the greatest and lowest drops in engagement between branded and personal posts. Also, this comment from a strategy executive might elicit a chuckle: "Most players see a drop in engagement when they incorporate messages from their sponsors. The exception is Andy Murray, whose fans seem to be more engaged in his branded content than personal messages."

Got a tip or a point to make? Hit me on Twitter at@jonscott9.