NEW YORK --- Serena Williams' U.S. Open title defense ended in bizarre, ugly fashion Saturday night, when she was penalized a point on match point after yelling and shaking her racket in the direction of an official who called a foot fault.
Williams lost to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5 in a taut semifinal that featured plenty of powerful groundstrokes by both women.
No one will remember a single shot that was struck, though, because of the unusual, dramatic way it finished.
With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she faulted on her first serve. On the second serve, a line judge called a foot fault, making it a double-fault -- a call rarely, if ever, seen at that stage of any match, let alone the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament.
That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from victory.
Instead of stepping to the baseline to serve again, Williams went over and shouted and cursed at the line judge, pointing at her and shaking a ball at her.
"If I could, I would take this ... ball and shove it down your ... throat and kill you," Williams said.
The line judge went over to the chair umpire, and tournament referee Brian Earley joined in the conversation. Williams then went over and said to the line judge: "I didn't say I would kill you. Are you serious? Are you serious? I didn't say that."
Williams already had been give a code violation warning when she broke her racket after losing the first set. So the chair umpire now awarded a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match.
"She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported to the chair, and that resulted in a point penalty," Earley explained.
"And it just happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct."
When the ruling was announced, Williams walked around the net to the other end of the court to shake hands with a stunned Clijsters, who did not appear to understand what had happened.
"I used to have a real temper, and I've gotten a lot better," Williams said in her postmatch news conference. "So I know you don't believe me, but I used to be worse. Yes, yes, indeed."
Lost in the theatrics was Clijsters' significant accomplishment.
In only her third tournament back after 21/2 years in retirement, the 26-year-old Belgian became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon 1980.
Clijsters hadn't competed at the U.S. Open since winning the 2005 championship. Now she will play for her second career major title Sunday against No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 in the other rain-delayed women's semifinal.
In the men's quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal beat No. 11 Gonzalez 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-0 in a match that began Thursday, was suspended that night because of showers in the second-set tiebreaker, and didn't resume until Saturday thanks to more rain Friday.
Nadal will face No. 6 Juan Martin del Potro in one men's semifinal today, and No. 1 Roger Federer will meet No. 4 Novak Djokovic in the other.
The men's final, usually played on Sunday, has been pushed back to Monday on account of the weather for the second consecutive year.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Obviously, a racist chair umpire.
Even tho the news will play with this for a few days, this is not the first time a Tennis player has thrown tantrums .Do I need to name a few? So get over it and get on with something else.
guess they will not be able to make a race thing out of this,since the umpire is asian
That umpire will be fired! Her decision to inject herself into the game was totally despicable and the all-white media is unbelieveable in this case. Here is why: The lying umpire made an error in judging Williams' foot fault call. The fault, which was called by the umpire was WRONG. That WRONG call created the emotions that any wrongfully charged athlete would exhibit, however, when a African-American athlete who is the best in the world shows any emotions, they are painted as violent while the bigoted instigator is not even questioned about their mistakes. What penalty do umpires face when they lie about a certain call. This one will be fired and an investigation is required to determine if money changed hands. Williams is the best, cheating officials will not taint her superior skills.
JUSTUS4....Have you read what you wrote? First, she is a LYING umpire, then, she made an ERROR, then she is a BIGOTED INSTIGATOR, then again you say she LIED...then maybe money changed hands? Make up your mind, but please, make some sense when you write something..and by the way, yes, she made a decision to inject herself into the game..that's what you do when you make a call..right or wrong...
GO online and look at the video FOOTage from this match. The call made was correct! Terrible behavior no matter who you are.
justus you sound like nothing more than a baiting little troll. Sorry, but the officials won't be fired and whether or not you think the call was justified, Williams' response was completely out of line. Implying you'd like to kill someone in front of a large audience (with nat'l media there to boot) is enough in some places to get you arrested. She's lucky to get off with only the penalty point.
JUSTUS...I will say this once again...you are a racist piece of trash. Whites are the devil according to you. I guess black people cannot be at fault for anything in your eyes!!! She double faulted and lost the match!!! But I guess it wasn't her fault because the lines on the tennis courts are white! And heaven forbid that she hit the top of the net because it's white too! You are a WORTHLESS PIECE OF BLACK RACIST TRASH!!! Get the dang chip off of your shoulder! White people don't owe you or anyone else anything!
The unprofessional woman got what she deserved, a loss. Kill her or not she still threatened the judge and walked up on her. She should be charged with terroristic threats. I know a SC man who was for that same statement. I used to admire her, but she lost all my respect in about 5 seconds.