Serena Williams: Losing It

Serena Williams had a meltdown during her US Open semifinal match against Kim Clijsters. It was bad timing for Williams to lose it, literally and figuratively.



From Jason Gay, the Wall Street Journal:

Oh, Serena. We adore nearly everything about you: your devastating game, your telegenic spirit, your unflappability...er, who turned you into Joe Pesci?

You were going to do what with that yellow ball to that hopeless U.S. Open line judge? Really? You can't even do that at a Raiders game.

Ms. Williams deserved to be DQ'd -- end of story. Let's not get swept up in comparisons to John McEnroe. First, there's a substantial difference between "You cannot be serious" and "I'll shove this ball down your throat," which is what Ms. Williams allegedly said. Second, it's easy to see Mr. McEnroe's second-act transformation to cuddly TV curmudgeon and assume people were more tolerant of his petulant on-court outbursts. Not really. Back in his day, a lot of folks thought Mr. McEnroe could be a boor, too.

What a weird scene Saturday night. Dick Enberg sounded like he wanted to run down to the court and wash Ms. Williams's mouth out with soap. Under the stadium, an overprotective handler tried to stick her hand over CBS's camera and prevent them from seeing Ms. Williams exit the locker room. With all that adult supervision around, you'd think one person would step in and convince Ms. Williams to quickly and publicly apologize. Instead, Ms. Williams compounded her misbehavior with a nonchalant press conference in which she acted like she'd gotten tossed for asking for Grey Poupon. She issued a lukewarm apology Sunday evening. The real shame is how this meltdown drowned out the performance of Kim Clijsters, who'd already seen her remarkable Open run overshadowed by the frenzy over Melanie Oudin.

Actions have consequences.

Even champions like Serena Williams can lose control.

She was composed enough to congratulate Clijsters. That was a classy move.

However, the stuff about shoving the ball down the line judge's throat wasn't very classy.

TV viewers around the world saw the irate Wimbledon champion launch a threatening, profanitylaced tirade at a female line judge after being called for a foot fault.

'If I could, I would take this f****** ball and shove it down your f****** throat,' she reportedly said.

The diminutive lineswoman reported her words to the umpire, who called in the tournament referee at Flushing Meadows in New York.

With the crowd booing, Miss Williams could be heard on the court microphone pleading with the lineswoman, saying: 'I didn't say I would kill you. Are you serious? I didn't say that.'

But her extraordinary outburst meant she was docked a point on match point, handing a semi-final victory to bemused Belgian opponent Kim Clijsters in one of the ugliest-ever endings to a major sports match.

Miss Williams had already received a warning for smashing a racquet, so the next sanction was a penalty point for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Not since John McEnroe was defaulted in the Australian Open in 1990 for swearing at the umpire has a top player made such an ignominious exit from such a high-profile match.

I don't think it's fair to compare Williams to McEnroe. An outburst is different from a consistent style and demeanor.

She had a meltdown. She smashed a racquet and followed that with a profanity-laced, threatening tirade. That's not the norm for her.

Nonetheless, such unsportsmanlike conduct cannot be tolerated. It appears that Williams got what she deserved.