Fall from the clouds

Super skinny Cheryl Cole has drawn first blood in her fashion battle with rival X Factor judge Dannii Minogue after she upstaged the Aussie star.

The girls stepped out in Glasgow for the first熟女 round of auditions, both clearly trying to out-do each other with skyscraper heels and puffed up hair.

As X Factor kicks off a new season the claws are back out in the celebrity showdown - but it seems Cheryl has landed the first blow.

Smiling Cole, 25, was recently crowned FHM’s熟女 sexiest woman, no doubt creating insecurities for 37-year-old rival Dannii Minogue.

There have been so many peculiar goings-on at Roland Garros in the past few days that the arrival of a second British male semi-finalist in five years would have been considered run-of-the-mill. That Andy Murray could not match Tim Henman’s 熟女bravura form of 2004 owed more to the relentless brilliance of his opponent than anything over which he should bear lasting recrimination.

Fernando González, of Chile, the junior champion here 11 years ago and the oldest player left in the field at 28, reached his first semi-final at the French Open because he chose this day to perform in the manner of the champion he may well become this weekend. Murray, in his past four defeats at these “majors”, has found himself on the wrong end of four men - Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, Roger Federer at the US Open, Fernando Verdasco in Australia and González yesterday - in shuddering form.

He was yesterday’s hollow-eyed press room inhabitant, beaten 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 and following a distinguished line of players asked to assimilate matches they must have thought they would win, only to have that pleasure ripped from them. Commendably, he did not seek excuses, as neither did his fellow top-ten occupants Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga nor Gilles Simon before him. Defeats are torture, made worse when you cannot accept them in the proper spirit.

Murray tipped his hat to González, rightly so. The Chilean had reached the last eight without dropping a set; he has now forfeited only one and if he can 熟女maintain this form on Friday against Robin Söderling, the Swede who picked up against Davydenko where he left off against Nadal, a second grand-slam final beckons.