Hold the front page - the demure cheerleader with the perfect hair has BEEN CAUGHT SWEARING. Sexism has reached new heights with the sensational reaction to Kim Sears' outburst:

"F***ing have it, you flash Czech f***"

As rallying calls go, it's got real power and punch. But the world was agog at Kim Sears' verdant turn of phrase as she watched fiance Andy Murray battle Tomas Berdych in the Australian Open semi-final.

First came the disbelief. Did the demure-seeming girlfriend with the great hair really use such terminology? An army of lip reading experts were drafted in to affirm that yes actually, she did. Then came a sort of amusement tinged with disapproval, and disappointment.

Murray, asked about the swearing in a completely irrelevant post-match grilling, described it as a regret. Radio 4's Today programme adopted psuedo-grave tones in a dedicated segment, with one commentator saying she felt "very sorry" for Sears in the "unfortunate" incident, as though she had been caught soliciting in a public toilet.

Why the puffery?

Sporting and swearing are hardly unfamiliar bedfellows. If we reached for the smelling salts every time someone uttered an expletive during a match, we'd spend our whole lives in a fragrant stupor.

There's kind of latent sexism at play here, stemming from the lazy and patronising coverage that has haunted Sears ever since she started dated Murray.

Kim Sears swearing; who gives a f***?