Serena Williams Disappoints Children

It was difficult to get tickets to the semi-final match between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, but it was more difficult to explain to the children Serena's inappropriate behavior!

Serena had not lost a set in her earlier matches, but it was evident early on that she could not handle the consistent deep shots and angles of Clijsters. For the first time in this US Open, Serena was not dictating the match. Clijsters broke her to take the first set 6-4. Serena's frustation was evident as she flipped her racquet and then smashed it at the end of the set. Serena received a code violation. She clearly had started to lose her focus.

Serena played better in the second set, but was never truly in command. She was trailing 6-5 and was serving. She fell behind 15-30, and then the bottom fell out. She faulted on her first serve and then was called for a foot fault to lose the point and make the score 15-40. Mt. Serena then erupted. She turned to the lineswoman and threatened to shove the ball down her throat with a few other colorful words which were caught on the microphone. Not only was she verbally abusing this poor official, but at the same time was shaking her racquet in a menacing way. After she had finished her first attack, she returned to the baseline to serve, but was distracted by the official returning from the chair umpire. At this point, she again screamed at the lineswoman with more colorful language. Tournament referee Brian Earley came onto the court, and gave Serena her second code violation which cost her a point, which was match point.

Kim Clijsters had no idea what was happening as Serena crossed the net to congratulate her. Clijsters had a look of bewilderment as she sat in her chair waiting to be interviewed. Serena William's embarassing behavior took away from the excellent play of Clijsters and her well deserved victory.

There are no excuses for Serena's behavior!! Bad calls are part of all sports and the true champions, the true professionals are able to rise above these obstacles. Earlier in the week, I witnessed a dubious foot fault called against Serena Williams. She handled this call by staring down the official without any verbage or threatening mannerisms. This also is not acceptable behavior, but a better choice of action than she exhibited against Clijsters.

What is an appropriate penalty? In basketball two technicals and you are thrown out of the game; in baseball argue with the umpire too vigorously, and you are thrown out of the game. Why should tennis be any different? She should have been immediately disqualified. She received $10,500.00 dollars in fines, about 3% of her winnings. Is that enough?

Anyone can have a meltdown. The frustation of not playing well, the pressure of being expected to win and then a bad call- all the ingredients for an explosion-BANG! However Serena had a bigger problem- Hubris. She could not accept responsibility for her actions and apologize. She did not apologize at her press conference after the match or the following day. All she could muster was that John McEnroe was one of her heroes, as if to wash away this hideous outburst by drawing comparisons to someone else known for abusing officials. Even McEnroe the commentator was at an immediate lose of words. There are no excuses. She then said that after gaining her composure, " in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me, and as a result, I handled the situation poorly. I would like to thank my fans for understanding I am human and look forward to continuing my journey, both professionally and personally."

Yes Serena you are human. We can understand that. What we cannot understand is why you did not apologize to this official immediately. Why did it take 3 days to begrudingly offer this official any apology?? We can all lose a match and recover our standings, but we cannot lose our dignity and walk away carefree. You have damaged yourself and have disappointed everyone!!

Hello! We're the Anti-Doping officials!

Tennis requires monstrous physical strength in this day and age. As a matter of fact, all sports require monstrous physical strength these days, because the level has jumped tremendously in the last decade. When we watch sporting events, there are often history flashbacks to past champions, or similar sport situations from the past that the editing crew comes up with during the airing, and first we may remark about the hairstyles or the clothes from back in the day watching this footage, but when that screen flashes back to present, we can’t help but think how far along this or that given sport has come along, mostly in a super human way. Then of course we think of the issues in sports that propel them to that type of height, mainly doping. It is a spoken or maybe unspoken fact that some Federations force their athletes to take things, some athletes experiment on their own, so many have been caught and denied achievements in their sporting careers because of it. Is it worth it? They don’t make bad players better; they only make great players greater. Sports are no longer sports when people go out of their way, literally. The restrictions and check ups on doping today are pretty stringent too, which is good. In a way, its invasive yes, when officials can show up at your door any day asking you to take a test, and when they force you to disclose your location on a daily basis. At the same time, how else do we control for these types of substances to level the playing field to the natural and the truly talented and hard working, not all of the above and then some. A lot of athletes speak up against this. They compare it to the paparazzi, stalking their lives and questioning their abilities instead of appreciating them. And then the question of doping matters is so interesting in itself. Do the substances evolve like computers; are the doping officials as up to date as possible? Is there a chemistry team somewhere working on new developments and their override-systems like hackers do? Either way, if there is no other way to check up on athletes, then it must be done. After all this is their job and if employees can be subjected to tests by the corporate world, athletes can handle this too, especially since it is something that has the potential to change the face of sports.

Serena Williams claims the new anti-doping restrictions are “over the top” and she is not alone. Rafael Nadal is one of the most outspoken critics claiming it makes players feel like “criminals” and that it is “harassment”. Andy Murray is also against it. The only top player that is ok with it is Federer. He acknowledges that it is not the easiest system but nevertheless says, “I know it's a pain, but I would like it to be a clean sport, and that's why I'm OK with it." Maybe these protesters have something to worry about; they are “monstrously fit”. Maybe they really do feel insulted in a way, that they give it their best and still have to be subjected to this random testing. But hey, if it keeps the sport pure and keeps one of them from turning into the Hulk of tennis, it is worth it. Besides for a sport so concerned with apparel and appearance, that wouldn’t be a very pretty sight, we have enough muscle and grunting out there as it is.

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3902886