TENNIS:THE ITF said yesterday it had no immediate plans to fast-forward any technology that would determine whether a player was guilty of committing a foot fault in the wake of Serena Williams's record fine for a foul-mouthed outburst at the US Open.
Williams, the 11-times grand slam champion, went into meltdown towards the end of her semi-final against Belgium’s Kim Clijsters at this year’s tournament over a foot-fault call, and she received a record fine of around €54,000 yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the governing body of world tennis agreed that camera technology made it possible to determine foot faults, but that it might interrupt the flow of a match for too long.
So the baseline judge will continue to be the sole arbiter, even though it remains the most contentious call in tennis now that Hawk-Eye can be used by players to challenge line calls, and that service lets are, for the most part, judged electronically.
Williams will effectively remain on probation over the next two years and should she transgress again in a major way the fine would be increased to €116,000, together with the real probability of a ban.
Bill Babcock, the grand slam administrator, determined the punishment. “The reason the decision seemed to take so long was simply down to protocol,” said Babcock.
The server must stand behind the baseline and fault is called if he or she touches the line, or is in front of the line, while serving. Players avoid transgressing instinctively.
It inevitably has an unsettling effect, as happened to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s ATP World Tour Finals when he was foot-faulted a split second after he had served what he thought was an ace and Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko went on to break serve. “I don’t know if I did it or not,” he said later.
Williams had been rather more certain, and began an expletive-riddled rant that saw her docked a penalty point which lost her the match against Clijsters. Given the nature of her tirade, and the threats made against the female line-judge, she might be deemed to have got off lightly.
The previous highest fine at a slam was imposed on Jeff Tarango in 1995, who was also suspended from Wimbledon for a year, after walking off court and describing the French umpire, Bruno Rebeuh, as “corrupt”.
Meanwhile, one thing is beyond doubt after eight fabulous days of action at the ATP World Tour Finals -- tennis has found a spectacular new venue at London’s space-age O2 Arena.
Almost all of the 17,500 tickets were snapped up for every session and fans were richly entertained with all but five of the 15 singles matches going to three sets.
The lighting was excellent, and the tennis served up by eight of the world’s top-nine players was of the highest quality, even at the end of a long, gruelling season.
All in all it was a highly satisfying first year of five for the O2 as the tournament venue, capped by worthy champion Nikolay Davydenko’s title triumph.
“I’ve had quite a few players say it’s the best-staged tennis event they’ve ever seen,” said managing director Chris Kermode. “I think everyone’s blown away by the O2.”
As the tennis court is removed and the stage reverts to hosting some of the world’s top musicians, men’s tennis begins the short countdown to next season.
Despite a first defeat in 13 meetings with Davydenko in the semis, there is little doubt Swiss maestro Roger Federer has re-established himself in the lead role.
He will head for the Australian Open in January as the world number one and favourite to add a 16th grand slam to his collection.
Twelve months ago Federer’s dominance seemed over as Rafael Nadal ended the year as world number one and when the Spaniard left him crushed and tearful a month or so later after an epic Australian Open final many questioned his ability to recover.
They need not have worried. A maiden French Open title and his sixth Wimbledon crown made it a golden year for Federer even if a shock defeat in the U.S. Open final by rising force Juan Martin del Potro left a slight blemish.
Guardian Service
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