Thats really gonna teach her. She makes $25 mil a year, thats what she has in her purse at anytime. If the WTA has any concern for the integrity of the game of tennis, they need to suspend her. In any other sport, if you have an outburst like Serena did last night, you get a suspension.

Suspension is the appropriate punishment. This is a very bad decision.

agreed, suspension is completely necessary.

she and venus are still scheduled to play for the women's doubles title.

Is there a chance a suspension is still coming? Maybe they decided against suspending her at the moment because it would mean forfeiting the doubles finals.

If it's any solace, the amount of marketing $$$ she'll lose as a result of this outburst will well exceed 10,000$

she should be suspended for tomorrows match and for a few more tournaments. Sad that the WTA is not standing up to this kind of behavior. I sure hope there werent too many junior players watching the match for this reason.

The incident is still under review by the Grand Slam Committee, but I doubt they have the balls to do it.

I am guessing y'all don't realize the 10k fine was the MAXIMUM PENALTY at this stage of the issue? The 10k is the maximum the US Open can fine a player.

She still faces losing her tournament purse and suspension from further Grand Slams.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 9/13/2009 8:21p).]

I do realize that, but they need to follow it up with a stiffer penalty.

Eh, I could care less what they do with Serena. To truth is, this is good for tennis. It gets Joe Watercooler talking about the sport. People that you never thought would talk about tennis will be talking at work tomorrow. The bad boys/girls in sports stir excitement. The history of tennis as a gents and ladies game is what makes this interesting.

To me, the real story is this: Should the foot fault have been called?

I'm sure most will say rules and rules, they are there for a reason. Foot fault is food fault no matter what. However, I think it was a bull sheet call. In every pro sport there is a common, yet unspoken acceptance between officals and players that when the game gets tight and close - let the players play. Final seconds of NBA game - refs don't call ticky tack fouls. Final seconds of a NFL game - refs let a little more slide - all because NO ONE wants the ending of a close, hard fought sporting event to fall into the hands of a offical. I feel no different about the foot fault.

Big cajones on that little line judge to call it.

I dont think the foot fault is the issue now.


she responded in the wrong way making the issue of the foot fault moot.


As stated before, she can still be banned from all grand slam tournaments as well as forfeit $250,000 or her winnings from that tournament, whichever is greater.

So in theory should could get suspended fromt he grand slams and fined $350,000.

Yes Texags2011, we all realize this now that we have read the same yahoo article that you did. Don't be such a d***.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=ro-serenafine091309&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Calm down, dude.

Was just making a comment after I read responses that this was a "bad descision" and questions about what else was possible. Didn't seem to me everyone knew the whole situation.

And no, I didn't read that article. Yahoo ain't the only place to read/discuss/hear about tennis. This story is everywhere.

Don't be such a dick.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 9/13/2009 11:23p).]

lostboy, I am surprised you would think that way. Forget Serena, I just lost a lot of respect for you. Call off the fishing trip and plans for next summer, youre dead to me now.

Yeah, I think the foot fault is pretty irrelevant now.

You just don't act that way, no matter what.

Hmmm, guess you folks are very new to Tennis or have ADD. Remember McEnroe? Illie Nastasy? Jimmy Connors?

That outburst was nothing compared to stuff they did. I'll give it and 8 out of 10 for effort and the deliver was lacking the style of the old Masters mentioned above.

oh, and stop being such poosays.

*********************************************************************************************************************
"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women."



[This message has been edited by TxAginAz (edited 9/14/2009 2:49a).]

I'm really on the fence about that foot fault call. I'm not a big fan of the Williams sisters but man that is freakin tough.

Who knows if the line judge even knows the score. But I really don't like that call at that stage of the match (unless its quite obvious). I wish they would have a baseline camera to see foot faults.

Could be worse though. There was a challanger match in Dallas earlier this year where a guy was called for a second serve foot fault at 5-6 in 3rd set TB. First foot fault of the match. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnQp9YoLl68

As for Serena's reaction - eh, I'd be pissed off too. As posted earlier, guys used to say a lot of bad things to the umpire/linesmen. I don't remember anyone calling for Connors to be suspended.

Come come now bigfoot. You know as well as I do that the tennis foot fault call is the equivalent of the NFL pass interference call. When obvious, its called. But there are plenty that are ignored. I've never been to a Grand Slam - but I can't imagine every foot fault is called. No way.

I give you 1 demerit for being such a tennis purist. You can gain it back by apologizing to me publicly, and following up with a pron blast on this thread. Ha!

I'll say this, yeah conners and McEnroe used to be a lot worse.


But I think its a different game now. That kind of stuff clearly isnt going to be tolerated, nor should it.

Granted, I think the williams sisters and especially her father are a bunch of pompous asses. But I dont think behavior like that belongs in the game.

They certainly were...and the extent of many people's tennis knowledge goes no further than you hit the ball with a raquet over the net and in the rectangle AND McEnroe is that moron that would explode on referees.

Again, the foot fault is irrelevant. Y'all are really okay with the stars of tennis cussing out and threatening the officials in the semifinals of the sports biggest tournaments?

That blows my mind.

who said they were okay with the behavior that was exhibited by Serena?

I'm not okay with it, but I liked watching it.

Who doesn't love a good train wreck in sports? First we get the Oregon football player with the right cross, and now Serena shoving the tennis ball down the throat of a line judge!

Horrible role model for the kids, but sure was fun to watch.

From Peter King's Monday Morning QB on SI:

quote:

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It's disturbing enough how Serena Williams blistered the line judge in her U.S. Open semifinal, causing Williams to get a penalty point, the last one in her loss Saturday night. But what was more disturbing, to me was her failure after her tirade to own up to what she did, denying that she threatened to kill the lineswoman when multiple witnesses heard exactly that. Yes, the foot-fault call was terrible. But threatening people the way Williams did ought to be cause for a suspension. It was disgraceful.

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Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. Yes, her actions are the big story, but the foot fault call IS relevant TxAg2011. And not just b/c Peter King wrote about it. Its relevant because that call, at that time in the match is unheard of in grand slam histoy.

No, it's not.

What Serena did is not okay at all. It does not matter what call was made. It does not matter what set it was made in. It does not matter what tournament they were at. It does not matter what the score was. It does not matter what set they were in.

It doesn't matter. Serena ****ed up.

lostboy-

youre dad is an umpire, you ought to ask him about the foot fault call and if he would have made it.

quote:

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who said they were okay with the behavior that was exhibited by Serena?

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Peopleare are trying to add justification to it...either by saying others have done it or trying to argue about the foot fault.


And no, lostboy, a foot fault is not neccasarily the equivalent of pass interference. You could maybe argue that moving your feet or not is somewhat of an equivalent but if you are called for touching the baseline...you either touched it or you didn't.

Don't bring my pops into this!

After watching some of the Williams's doubles final, I'm convince that Serena probably foot faults a lot more than she gets called for.

And therein lies the problem. She probably foot faulted 10 other times w/o a call being made. You be more consistent with the call throughout the match and you probably don't have to make the call at 5-6, 15-30.

Californians are a completley different breed.

Durrr foot fault? What is that? I don kno noTIng BoUt Tenis. I not TxAg2011 So I Do Kno notIng Bout teNis.

Get off your high horse, how many times in one thread can you declare that you are the most amazing and knowledgable person on the sport of tennis in this forum?

Anyways,

Federer had an outburst today. Not as bad as Serena's, but he seemed to have less justification, other than that he was playing poorly.

Is there any doubt that everyone in the world was watching Serena's feet on every serve? I didn't see the match, but that's hilarious that you watched. I bet the line judge saw the same thing, but didn't want a ball shoved down her f****** throat, so she didn't call it.

goblu, who are you talking to?

quote:

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Californians are a completley different breed.

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Yep. One can only hope their state breaks off the west coast sooner rather than later.

[This message has been edited by TXAggie2011 (edited 9/14/2009 11:54p).]

Should the foot fault have been called? Tennis is a game based on lines. When the foot crosses the service line it is a foot fault. Simple. Most professionals would be pissed if the ball was called out by the same margin as her foot crossed the line.

Most tennis player have faced opponents who foot fault during their matches and do not like it, but do nothing about it. I guess this is the wake up call.

Maybe the real issue here is that, as was observed, she foot faults 10+ times a match, and they're not called. If this is going to be something they're going to emphasize, 2 points from the end of a match this deep into a Grand Slam is not the time to do it.

To continue the analogy that has been made, it would be like if in the NFL, the DB's had been faceguarding the whole game, and then on a pass to the endzone with time expiring, all of a sudden they call pass interference on him. I think most athletes recognize that different officials call game/matches/whatever a little differently, but the one thing they ask is that the officials be consistent. I think calling it for the first time this deep into the match was a mistake by the official.

That being said, Serena was way out of line. It's one thing to yell at an official, it's another to tell her you're going to shove the ball down her f****** throat, or kill her, or whatever.

Sure, people have done this before, as has been mentioned, without this kind of backlash. But in a more commercial, televised era, people don't want to see that kind of junk any more. Passion and frustration is fine, the occasional argued call with the chair is fine (although there shouldn't be much with the replay camera), and sometimes slight shows of frustration by hitting a ball against a fence, but this was way beyond that. Not only did she yell at the official, but then she didn't quit while she was behind, and went back for seconds.

quote:

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but the one thing they ask is that the officials be consistent. I think calling it for the first time this deep into the match was a mistake by the official

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Bingo. Well said.

quote:

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but the one thing they ask is that the officials be consistent. I think calling it for the first time this deep into the match was a mistake by the official

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that's what i said on the original thread and it was not taken well at all.