Defending champion Serena Williams was charged with a point penalty on match point after yelling at a line judge for a calling a foot fault on her previous serve. The ruling gave Kim Clijsters a 6-4, 7-5 victory in their semifinal match, which had been delayed 32 hours because of rain.
After the line judge called the foot fault with Serena serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, the youngest Williams sister intimidatingly stared her down before screaming at the official with a jabbed finger. After a few seconds, Serena turned back around to serve, thought better of it and resumed the badgering. The chair umpire then called over the line judge to ask what Serena had said, rules officials were summoned, a brief summit occurred at the net and it was determined that Serena would be assessed a point penalty for a conduct violation. The point gave Clijsters the match.
What did Serena Williams say to the line judge?
Williams could not recount clearly what was said when she tried to join the conversation between the linesman, the umpire and Earley.
“I think she [the linesman] said [I said] ‘I would kill you,’ and I was like, what? I was like, wait a minute. But then I had misheard. She had never said that . . . She [the linesman] was like ‘No, [Serena] didn’t say that. She said something else.’ I said, ‘Oh, OK. I get it.’
“And I was totally fine, because at that point, I realized I got a point penalty and it was match point. What can I do? I’m not going to complain. It was what it was.”
The penalty point cost her the match, she walked over to a bewildered Clijsters standing at the other baseline and shook her hand.
“She said good luck and I hope you win..”
UPDATE: Williams was levied with a $10,000 fine by the U.S. Open for unsportsmanlike conduct on Sunday for her foul-mouthed tirade at a line judge the night before, as she slumped to a semifinals defeat to Kim Clijsters. The fine was the maximum possible at this stage.
Source: Yahoo! Sports | ESPN | Newsday.com
