Malcolm Muggeridge once said that there is nothing quite like sport for producing unsportsmanlike behaviour. Serena Williams’ contribution to that aphorism occurred at the US Open when she apparently told the line judge – this is the expurgated version – “If I could, I would take this ball and shove it down your throat and kill you”

During Wimbledon 2007, the Emmanuel Church of Wimbledon Village had this sign outside the church:

As I type this, the 2009 US open semi-finals are yet to be played; Federer will be playing Djokovic. Whatever the outcome, there is little doubt that Roger Federer is among the greatest tennis players ever.

I don’t know why Emmanuel church put what they did on their sign other than to say, perhaps, that God does good work when he creates a human in his image, free to love, sacrifice, create and achieve. But obviously an atheist can’t say that. For that rare specimen, the logically consistent atheist, the best he would be able to come up with would be:

Natural selection accidentally produced a mechanism that, with its evolutionary spring fully wound, had the strength, agility and determination (mechanistically determined determination, of course) to hit a small piece of rubber over a net better than the naturally selected competition. Not very exciting for a tennis fan.

I’ll stick with “God made Roger Federer”.