Serena Williams berates official, loses match for conduct violation

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Serena Williams berates official, loses match for conduct violation
By Chris Chase


Rain gave way to bedlam tonight at the U.S. Open.

Defending champion Serena Williams was charged with a point penalty on match point after yelling at a line judge for a calling a foot fault on her previous serve. The ruling gave Kim Clijsters a 6-4, 7-5 victory in their semifinal match, which had been delayed 32 hours because of rain.

After the line judge called the foot fault with Serena serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, the youngest Williams sister intimidatingly stared her down before screaming at the official with a jabbed finger. After a few seconds, Serena turned back around to serve, thought better of it and resumed the badgering. The chair umpire then called over the line judge to ask what Serena had said, rules officials were summoned, a brief summit occurred at the net and it was determined that Serena would be assessed a point penalty for a conduct violation. The point gave Clijsters the match.

The initial foot fault that began the fireworks was a terrible call. It was unconscionable. It cannot be made at the end of any match, let alone in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. This isn't because a foot fault is a ridiculous call at that juncture (even though it is). It's because it wasn't a foot fault. The replays show that Serena's foot was behind the line when she served. You could make the argument that it was close but not close enough to make the call.

That being said, that's no excuse for Serena to berate an official. Wrong as the official may have been, there's a line that to be crossed and Serena did it pretty early on in her diatribe by saying, "I'm going to shove this ball down your f------ throat".

It got worse from there. There were multiple profanities, more threats and a lot of pointing. I mean, even John McEnroe said it was a bit much.

The explosive end is sure to obscure the fact that Serena probably would have lost the match without the foot fault. Clijsters was playing great and Serena couldn't win a point on her second serve. The end was coming, Serena's outburst merely hastened its arrival. Maybe that was the point.


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So it sounded like Serena was frustrated by losing to an unseeded player and decided to take it out on a line judge. Bad call or not, one call wasn't going to cost her the match. Being fat and out of shape and losing to a more determined player cost her the match.
 
There is now talk that Serena may be further fined and or suspended from at least the next Grand Slam event as a result of her actions. There is a precedent for this. There was an american player several years ago, I can't recall his name, who was suspended for two consecutive Grand Slam events for a tirade at Wimbledon.

Serena issued a really lame "apology" that evening saying crap like "I'm such a competitor, I just got caught up in the moment" and "that was such a horrible call by the line judge that I feel justified in threatening her life and screaming f-bombs on national television". Those weren't her exact words of course, but it's basically what she said. After she was criticized for that lame appology she issued another one that was a little better, but still conveyed that she feels she is above the law.
 
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