Tennis is stirred but not shaken

What exactly is it about tennis and James Bond?

Actor Pierce Brosnan was a gift to headline writers around the world Friday -- and, above all, to tennis player Marion Bartoli -- when he served as inspiration in her upset of No. 1-ranked Justine Henin in a Wimbledon semifinal.

You Only Serve Twice. Play Another Day. The Girl With The Golden Arm.

Brosnan has been all over the tennis scene in London. Meeting Roger Federer. Watching Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic. In the stands for one of Andy Roddick’s matches in a pre-Wimbledon event at Queen’s Club.

He’s hardly the first Bond guy to be linked to tennis. Sir Sean Connery clambered aboard the Andy Murray bandwagon a couple of years ago, and surprised him with a congratulatory phone call last year. Murray wrote on his web blog: “There’s nothing cooler than being woken up by James Bond.”

But outdoing them all was George Lazenby (“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”). He married someone who played at Wimbledon 17 times: Hall of Famer Pam Shriver.

One can only hope Daniel Craig will be showing up in Carson.

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There is something to be said about the power of celebrity at a tennis match.

Andre Agassi was rolling along in the quarterfinals at the French Open in 2001. In walked former President Bill Clinton to a standing ovation ... and Agassi lost in four sets.

Then there are times when even the most inspirational of figures can’t help the cause. At Wimbledon in 2000, Justin Gimelstob spotted Bjorn Borg.

“In the warmup, I saw Borg with a really hot girl in the front row,” he said. “I was looking at her. I thought, ‘OK, if I play here, maybe I have a shot.’ Then I saw Borg. I’m like, ‘Probably not going to happen.’ At the end I saw [Rod] Laver. That was it: the hot girl, Borg, then Laver.”

Unfortunately for Gimelstob, the player on the other side of the court was Pete Sampras, the eventual champion.

Trivia time

Whom did Borg lose to, and in what round, in his first Wimbledon?

Silence of the Mac

Our admiration of John McEnroe’s ability to hold back -- indeed, he can -- was one of the post-match revelations late in NBC’s Wimbledon coverage Sunday. The great man himself, Borg, was chatting with McEnroe and commenting on champion Federer’s celebration.

“That is the best feeling in the world,” said Borg, a five-time Wimbledon champion. “Or at least, one of the better feelings.”

McEnroe, perhaps caught a bit off guard, said something about not “going there.” So glad he didn’t take that trip.

To-do list

Life was pretty simple for Gillian Goring of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics one day last week.

1. Go to basketball practice.

2. Get married.

“I just announced it after practice,” she told the Times Record of Fort Smith, Ark.

Apparently her teammates thought she was joking, and Goring had to tell them, no, indeed she was telling the truth.

“They were like, ‘Are you serious? Are you for real?’ ” she told the newspaper. “They thought I was playing.”

Trivia answer

Roger Taylor defeated Borg, 6-1, 6-8, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, in the quarterfinals in 1973.

And finally

Bartoli, to reporters: “I can watch James Bond a hundred times in a row. It’s not a problem for me.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com