US Open Match Won By Penalty?

Serena Williams lost her US Open semifinal match to Kim Clijsters last night as a result of loosing her temper plain and simple. According to the sports reporters “foot faults” are rarely called. Last night a foot fault was called at a crucial time during a very close battle between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters. Serena, while attempting to set up for the next word decided to have some words with one of the officials which, in turn, decided to go to the umpire because she, as the media quotes her as saying, felt threatened. After the the net-side chat Serena was penalized once again giving the match point to Clijsters. Do we agree with what happened yes and no.

• Yes – Williams should not have lost her temper like that.
• Yes – Williams could have kept quiet and focus on the game, which is hard for her when she get upset.
• No – The official should not have felt threatened by someone who uses a racquet to point instead of a finger because no fingers were free.
• No – Officials should not have awarded a fault that would be a match-deciding point.

I certainly would not have wanted to win a match due to a penalty against Williams. Instead, I would have wanted to earn my victory on the court. Clijsters had a good opportunity to win the match with skill and that was robbed from her. Let’s hope that Williams learns to control her temper in the future. Let’s hope that WTA uses official in the future who a recognize a real personal threat when they see one.  I really didn’t like how some some of the reporters are playing up the incident by saying the Williams was waving the racquet in a threatening manner when she was just pointing. A threatening gesture would have been a classic racquet across the throat, of the infamous baseball stance that screams “I will take you head off”. I’ve also visited forums where people have the idea that the race card will be pulled. This is not a race card situation. Let’s hope that everyone can keep race out of this incident. None of the parties involved have made an comments regarding race. Let that bear stay in its cave and rest. Hit the link below for more information about the aftermath of this incident. Also Check out his nice video and decide whether the incident was threatening, or just another tense player who is trying to win her match to get to the finals.

US Open 2009 Incident involving Serena Williams

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Chaos detracts from riveting encounter - ESPN