He lets his fingers do the talking

Roger Federer and Thomas Johansson have combined for 10 Grand Slam singles titles -- well, Federer won nine and video evidence confirms the amazing fact that, yes, Johansson did win the Australian Open in 2002.

But they can’t compete with the literary efforts of a tennis colleague, Dmitry Tursunov of Russia. Tursunov is turning out to be the Federer of blogging. Just ask Tursunov.

“Thomas Johansson is calling me ‘Maestro,’ ‘Blog King,’ ‘The Chosen One’ and ‘Richard Pryor of Blogging’ after he realized how difficult it is to blog on my level, and even Roger asked for blogging lessons for his own website,” Tursunov wrote on ATPtennis.com.

“He is trading three of his Grand Slam titles because he spent all of his money on some pastures for his cow, or something like that, so he just wants to trade instead of paying cash!”

Tursunov riffled through his summer memories and wrote about his trip to the tour stop in Toronto, contending that Canada is “just like the States.”

“One part that still misses Greg Rusedski and thinks that it’s American, and one part that thinks it’s French and that geographically it is wedged in between Spain and Belgium and not between U.S. and a bunch of penguins,” he wrote.

“In my opinion, this is nonsense. Canada should just become the 51st state and move on to more important things like ice skating and making syrup out of trees.”

See no Evo

Bolivian President Evo Morales could play it safe. He could get his exercise solely by running -- he has run marathons -- or swimming, or go out and hit tennis balls, if he wanted to get really wild.

Instead, Morales plays soccer, and apparently his opponents aren’t docile minions. Morales suffered a broken nose during an indoor game against Guerilleros de la Independencia of Cochabamba. Try fitting that name on a jersey, by the way.

He was quizzed about his injury in an interview this month by the German publication Der Spiegel and answered with a question of his own.

“Does my nose still look crooked?” Morales asked.

“Playing sports has always been my greatest pleasure. I don’t smoke, I hardly drink alcohol and I rarely dance, although I used to play the trumpet. Sports helped get me into the presidential palace.”

Trivia time

What is the Cresta run?

Home and away

Let’s get on with it, writes Martin Johnson of London’s Daily Telegraph. He, like many, has grown quite weary of the long and winding Ryder Cup buildup. But ...

“If there’s anything guaranteed to survive all this nonsense, it is Ireland’s legendary hospitality,” he writes. “A journalist sitting in a cab looking for his remote B & B accommodation down a series of un-signposted pitch-black country lanes on Monday night was beginning to despair of ever finding it when his driver said to him, ‘Don’t you go worrying yourself now. If we don’t find the place soon, I’ll phone the wife and have the spare room made up for you.’ ”

Trivia answer

It is a course for the Olympic sport of skeleton racing in St. Moritz, Switzerland, running three-quarters of a mile, featuring a fun-filled drop of 514 feet.

Love on ice

The website of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club details the “lure and excitement” of the Cresta with this reference:

“The first Lord Brabazon of Tara once wrote, ‘The Cresta is like a woman with this cynical difference -- to love her once is to love her always.’ ”

And finally ...

David Barlow, Ian Woosnam’s agent, speaking to England’s Guardian newspaper about his client’s weighty task as European Ryder Cup captain this weekend:

“OK, he’s not Winston Churchill when it comes to oratory -- but he wasn’t selected as captain to be an orator. He was selected to bring home the Ryder Cup.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com