TENNIS/US OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS:SERENA WILLIAMS was destined to lose more than her temper and her US Open semi-final against Kim Clijsters as it emerged yesterday the number two seeded American was facing a $10,000 fine after her profanity-laced tirade against a lineswoman who called a foot fault against her.
Neither the player herself nor tournament referee Brian Earley were prepared to reveal exactly what was said to the lineswomen but the New York tabloids, which splashed the story across the back pages yesterday, were not so reticent.
Suffice to say, it wasn’t exactly ladylike: “I swear to God I’ll f***ing take the ball and shove it down your f***ing throat.”
Even the combustible John McEnroe, commentating on the match for American television, suggested she be suspended.
The player’s mother, Oracene Price, was driven to say of her daughter: “She could have kept her cool.”
As for Williams herself, she was far from apologetic. She continued to abuse the lineswomen after her initial tirade, becoming enraged when it appeared she was being accused of threatening her physically, yelling “I did not threaten to kill you. Are you serious?”
Afterwards, she was unrepentant.
“An apology from me? How many people yell at linespeople? I see it happening all the time,” she said, pointing out that when all was said and done she did finally accept the ruling.
“I don’t know how many times I have seen that happen. I am a professional. I’m not the beggar, like ‘Please, please, please, let me have another chance’ because it was the rules and I play by the rules.”
The irony is Williams, who had been comprehensively outplayed for most of the match, was playing her best tennis of the night when the trouble started.
The 27-year-old’s anger flared in the 12th game of the second set, with the American serving and Clijsters, already one set up, leading six games to five and 30-15.
The lineswoman then called a foot fault on the second serve – a marginal call which TV pictures were unable to illuminate. It gave the Belgian two match points.
Initially, Williams appeared to accept the call but before she could compose herself and serve again she turned, walked towards to the lineswomen and let rip. Having being warned earlier in the match for abusing her racket, she was then penalised a point, which gave the set and match to Clijsters.
The unseeded Belgian, making her return to Grand Slam tennis after a two-year break, progressed to yesterday’s final against ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Flushing Meadows is traditionally the rowdiest of Grand Slam venues – in 1979 a match between John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase ended in a near riot after the Romanian was initially defaulted, then reinstated and, finally, beaten in four sets.
Saturday’s flare-up wasn’t quite on that scale but with officials reviewing the tapes it seemed certain Williams would be fined the maximum sum of $10,000.
Afterward, Williams said: “I think I’ll learn that it pays to always play your best and always be your best and always act your best no matter what.
“And I think that I’m young and I feel like in life everyone has to have experience that they take and that they learn from, and I think that’s great that I have an opportunity to still be physically fit to go several more years and learn from the past.
“I like to learn from the past, live in the present, and not make the same mistakes in the future.”
MEN: SINGLES: Quarter-final: (3) R Nadal (Spa) bt (11) F Gonzalez (Chi) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2) 6-0; Semi-final: (6) JM Del Potro (Arg) bt Nadal 6-2 6-2 6-2’
WOMEN: SINGLES: Semi-finals: (9) C Wozniacki (Den) bt Y Wickmayer (Bel) 6-3 6-3, K Clijsters (Bel) bt (2) S Williams (USA) 6-4 7-5. Doubles: Semi-final: (1) C Black (Zim) and L Huber (USA) bt (3) S Stosur (Aus) and R Stubbs (Aus) 5-7 6-3 6-1.
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