Serena Williams, the current defending champion of the US Open Tennis Championship, was dismissed at match point against Kim Clijstters in the semi-final, Saturday. Clijsters won the first match 6-4.
Williams was down 5-6 and had the serve in the second set. At 15-30, the foot umpire called a foot fault which footage of the match later revealed was not a foot fault. Serena apparently said something to the line umpire who made the wrong call, that she would stick the tennis ball Serena was holding in her hand, where the sun don’t shine, basically! The foot fault umpire complained and Serena was penalized a point which cost her the match.
Williams already had been given a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set.
Tennis is about entertainment as well as sport. Serena certainly brought that. The F word she used at least 3x and the A word at least once.
The ironic thing about Serena’s ordeal, was that the US Open head official, defined the dismissal as being a show of ‘unsportsman-like’ behavior, which had cost Williams the match.
What I don’t understand is, how can the word ‘sportsmanship’ still be used in women’s tennis, without going unquestioned and unchallenged in this day and age. Wouldn’t ‘sportspersonship’ behavior be more appropriate.
I thinks that’s more the point in this Serena Williiams Vs US Tennis Open Officials story tonight. Those rules need changing! That’s more the point.
Congratulation to Kim Clijsters of Belgium. The new mother, played brilliantly.
