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Today we had a glimpse of what Wimbledon 2007 should have been. The rain is now gone, and suddenly great tennis exploded onto the showcourts with spectacular performances from Marion Bartoli and Richard Gasquet.

It was also nice to see such warm sportsmanship between Marcos Baghdatis and Novak Djokovic. There was some humour between them during the match, and at the end of it all they embraced warmly. Marcos then waited until Novak was ready so they could leave the court together. There isn’t enough of that, and it recognised that once the battle was over that was it. They are friends, and business was over. Time for a beer, perhaps.

The match, which lasted just one minute under five hours (on grass!!) could not have been closer or played in a better spirit. After what was a high-quality battle from beginning to end both knew they had produced what might well be remembered as the match of the tournament. There must be some consolation in that, even though it might take a good nights sleep before Baghdatis recognises it.

Marion Bartoli also produced a stellar performance in beating Justine Henin, bludgeoning the world number one to defeat. Not bad for her Centre Court debut. She had expected to play on Court One, but the Djokovic/Baghdatis match took so long the match was transferred. That made a bigger difference than might have been realised at first, because watching on Centre court was James Bond, Pierce Brosnan. Bartoli admitted afterwards that he was her favourite actor, and she had been inspired by him watching.

And what a day for the French, with Richard Gasquet coming back from dropping the first two sets to beat Andy Roddick. Like Bartoli, he played at a very high level and fully deserved to win. And again, good sportsmanship at the end, with Roddick warmly congratulating his conqueror.

So, after a dull Wimbledon up to now, Fantastic Friday has gone some way to making it up. Could it be connected with the better weather? Possibly.

Roger Federer hadn’t been seen much around the place for the past week, just showing up for a while on Thursday to play a bit of his match against Juan Carlos Ferrero. So what did he do while waiting for his turn on Centre Court?

“I went to the city once or twice. Went to the hairdresser. Watched movies. Played cards. Hanged out. I wasn't really focusing on the matches too much.” Now you know. Sorry, don’t know what he watched. Don’t know what card game he played. I can tell you some things about Rafael Nadal, though.

He has been blogging in the London Times and revealed that he loves eating Nutella, his favourite ice cream flavour is cookies and cream, he is addicted with PlayStation, and he has been watching 10 hours of The Godfather movies on DVD. Although he has been watching them in Spanish, he is considering also buying the box set in English to help him with learning the language. As long as he doesn’t start trying to talk like Marlon Brando.

But back to Federer. Bjorn Borg is going to be around to watch whether Federer can equal his run of Wimbledon victories. They’ve met a few times, and have even hit together. Imagine that, and that almost no-one was there to witness it.

“He was playing the Legends Rock Dubai, kind of an exhibition match against McEnroe. I arrived on the night they were playing. I was on the way to Shanghai, staying a few nights in Dubai,” Federer explained.

“I was like, that may be the only opportunity to ever play with Bjorn. I needed to hit anyway. It would have been good to hit with somebody. I asked somebody who knew Bjorn if he had time maybe that day or the next day, because I assumed he was going to stick around Dubai because he likes hanging around there.

“Right away he called me back, No problem, I'm ready. I was so excited. He asked if he could also bring Mansour Bahrami. I said no problem, we can hit, all three of us. We hit for about two hours. It was just incredible to see him play, then to hit with him was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.”

It’s similar to what I wrote a few days ago about Ana Ivanovic. It’s interesting to realise that, while many look up to people like her and Federer, they also admire others. Even Federer. When he first played in front of Borg he wanted to impress the Swedish master.

“You know, it's different when you know he's sitting there, you're trying to play well. You're not trying to prove yourself, but in the back of your mind you always know he's there. But I don't think it's going to matter much (if he’s watching at Wimbledon). I take it more as an enjoyment. I'm happy he comes back to Wimbledon, because he didn't come back for such a long time. I think he's fantastic. Obviously to maybe equal his record would be fantastic, with him maybe watching my match.”