If the United States Tennis Association has any backbone at all they will suspend Serena Williams from next year's US Open.
Serena Williams outburst last night was so completely over-the-top that she should be forced to sit out next year's tournament. It isn't going to happen, but there is absolutely NO excuse for threatening the life of a line judge. She is lucky that legal action hasn't been taken. And to make matters worse she acted like a spoiled brat during the news conference immediately following her dismissal from the 2009 Semi-Finals.
Her attitude during the post match interview session was embarassing. She feigned amnesia when it came to recalling her tirade, acted shocked at the notion the line judge might have felt threated and demonstrated a complete lack on contrition.By the way she also made it seem like she was just off to a slow start in the match. Rewatch the tape Serena, Kim Clijsters was in complete control of that match from the jump.
Ms. Williams should have thrown herself at the mercy of the court, apologized for her behavior and personally sought out that line judge's forgiveness. Instead she preened, grimaced and even laughed at the notion that the line judge might have felt threated because she has "never even been in a fight." Oh, THAT makes a lot of sense. Are you kidding me? Go away.
Just because she can hit a yellow ball doesn't give the right to be a bully. She violently threatened a woman that has the thankless job of watching a line seven hours a day. Very brave Serena. Look, people are going to start comparing this to McEnroe, Connors and Nastase. All I can say is don't. This isn't the same thing. Swearing at a judge and calling them stupid are totally different than telling someone that you are going to shove a tennis ball into their lower intestines. It's not even in the same league.
The fact is this is singularly the worst behavior by a professional athlete on the playing field that I can remember and I keep thinking that it borders on criminal.
Do the right thing USTA and bench her... today
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I can't argue with any of your points on that, all valid, but... I'd like to hear the tape on both exchanges with the line judge. A few things need to be noted:
ReplyDelete1. The call was wrong. Not even close.
2. The call was made at as critical a juncture in that match as you'll find - in any sport, who blows the whistle that late in the game for a dopey penalty like that...unless you want to find something.
3. Call it ticky-tacky or un-PC, but why on earth would you put an optically-challenged (from the look of it, severely optically challenged) person on the line in that event? Is there some -ism that we follow that doesn't allow us to hire people who have at least 20-20 vision, when their sole responsibility is to keenly watch a line, particularly one in a light-to-dark night match?
4. The line judge, when asked, appears to have told the judge "she said she was going to kill me", to which Serena says, "Are you serious? I never said I was going to kill you."
Two things to note on this last exchange. Obviously, "going to kill you" and "shove this ball down your throat" aren't that far off, but they are quite different - A&E vs. homicide, for starters. But, the recounting is telling to me. Why would the line judge say that if it wasn't what said? If she just repeated what was said, wouldn't that have been enough? I would suggest the possibility that this judge absolutely wanted to make sure that what was exchanged was enough. Further, why was this call made at all? Forget that it wasn't even close to a foot fault, but why was any call made at that point? Again, I find that telling too. Sorry, but this smells really rotten to me. I think Clijsters would have won anyway, but anyone who's been in the heat of a battle at a key moment in, arguably, the most important event of the year, is going to snap. And snap she did and should be punished accordingly. But that line judge should not be calling games on that stage in the future. Give me a freakin' break.
The worst part of this whole thing was the exchange between Enberg, Carillo and McEnroe. First off, Enberg is and always has been an empty suit, enamored with his prose, but give me a break. Carillo is and has been on a personal jihad against the Williams for as long as I can remember. She clearly doesn't agree with the approach of work/life balance that Venus and Serena have taken and she lets the viewer know in poorly veiled comments throughout, including the following night at the Women's finals. After four or five digs at Serena and the behavior, she goes on to contrast Wozniacki and how she used to have a problem controlling her emotions but is now a "cupcake" on the court. Are f'ing kidding me? I've watched only 3 of her matches and saw her throw or slam her racquet at least 4 times...what kind of cupcake is that? Worst, however, is McEnroe's silence throughout. Yes, John was great at working a crowd/ump and, appearing, to be in control of his emotions as he made a scene. But, like most things, the lore doesn't exactly match the truth - I can recall many, many times in McEnroe's career when he just plain lost it. Lost it and wanted to "kill" someone, absolutely not, but you'd think a guy with that background would say something empathetic, particularly after he noted that it absolutely was not a foot fault. Weak McEnroe, weak.
I hope that the USTA releases the original unedited version. It isn't going to happen but as you say we need transparency.
ReplyDeleteI too think Enberg is a clown but I have an entire rant coming regarding Dick and others of his ilk.
Carillo is a different story, she needs to stick to the Olympic travel logs. Clearly she has an axe to grind with Mr. Williams and his dismissive attitude toward the USTA when developing Serena and Venus.
As for McEnroe I actually think that he was in a tough spot. Especially if he felt, the way that I do, that Serena's tirade was worse than anything that he ever did.
Look, I am by no means a McEnroe apologists, I was always a Borg guy, but as bad as his explosions were he never threatened a line judge that way. If he didn't want to defend her the better part of valor was probably to sit on his hands. However, if he wasn't outraged then he should have come to her aid.
If she said the things that I think she said I think that it is far worse than Roberto Alomar's spitting at the ump. And until the other night that was the worst thing I had ever seen.
As far as the call itself and whether someone with glasses should even be out there, I think you are right on both counts but it still doesn't forgive the behavior.
Thanks for writing.