!92605453 Greetings, everyone. I'm hustling today, with telephone interviews booked with Caroline Wozniacki and Andre Agassi, so this will be brief. I just finisheda post for ESPN on the judgment the ITF handed down in the Serena Williams case - two years probation and a $175,000 fine, of which roughly half will be rebated to Serena if she doesn't violate the terms of her probation.
It's a fair and sensible response to an ugly incident that was unprecedented in the women's game, and rare even at the worst of times in the men's. I guess the closest thing to it was that incident that occured about 25 years ago, when a livid Jimmy Connors tried to shake an umpire out of his high chair.
I had very mixed feelings about the Serena incident, which took place during her semifinal match with Kim Clijsters at the US Open. You can read those initial reactions if you click on the US Open 2009 tab in the categories bar on the right. But basically, I thought it was a terrible call made at the worst possible time, and once again it illustrated how capriciously and arbitrarily the foot-fault role is enforced. At the same time, Serena's response was unacceptable, because it took protest to a different, unsavory level. You simply can't have players threatening officials with bodily harm, end of story.
A part me me wonders if we've heard the last of this. In this litigious society, would anyone be surprised if the linesperson in question turned up two years from now, filing a $25 million civil suit, claiming that Serena's outburst was so traumatic that it's ruined her life? How hard is it to get a psychiatrist to testify that you've been complaining about having nightmares and feeling depressed and despondent for two years? You can criticize Serena's behavior on many fronts, but one real mark of how downright stupid it was is that it left her exposed to something like the scenario I just outlined. And her arrogant, initial refusal to apologize to the linesperson didn't do anything to quell the potential repercussions of her ill-considered act.
I'll have a few things to say about the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals tomorrow, too. But that's it for now. You can read more on my reaction to the ITF decision at ESPN when it goes live, which should ve shortly.
-- Pete