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Filed under: U.S. Open

This is when a suspension is not a suspension, a major fine is not a major fine.

It took months to figure this out, how to word it perfectly, but on Monday, the International Tennis Federation did it.

It gave Serena Williams a punishment that wasn't a punishment.

The $175,000 fine and three-year suspended ban from the U.S. Open and probationary period for her f-bomb laced, threatening tirade at a tiny U.S. Open line judge do sound like big words, don't they?

They aren't. Break it down, and Williams will end up paying just $82,500. She recently referred to $50,000 as the furniture budget in her home remodeling.

If she doesn't have another major outburst, the fine is cut to that number, and the suspension thrown out. She will not miss a tournament. Her debt will be paid.

Look, the fine means nothing to Williams. She won't feel it. But the ITF can say that it's a record size.

OK, Serena? Is this OK with you?

I can only imagine ITF officials pleading with her to please, please let them appear to be an actual governing body.

You remember what happened. The line judge called footfault on Williams, who then waved her racquet in the judge's face and threatened to take the ``(f-ing) ball'' and shove it down her "(f-ing) throat.''

That led to a point penalty on match point. So the match was over.

Let's be honest: Race is an issue. It always is with tennis and the Williams sisters. Some people will think Williams was given a record fine because she's black. Others will think she was given a pass because she's black.

Some people think she was the bully, some think she was victim of a bad call.

The ITF doesn't really care what's right. That was never an issue. The only issue was this: How do you give a penalty that looks big but isn't?

The point isn't that she was punished too much or too little, but rather that it was a non-justice based on non-truths, when true leadership was crying out because people's real feelings were involved about the game, Williams, race, and sportsmanship.

The feelings are so real that some people insist the video evidence proves she never footfaulted. Others demand the video evidence proved she did.

Here's the truth: There is no camera shot, video or still, that can determine anything.

There are lots of truths missing here, a mess that has made tennis look uglier than ever. Williams' smokescreen reasons for her tantrum, her ``punishment,'' the ITF's naked self-interest, John McEnroe's irresponsibility.

The ITF let this thing drag on so long that hard feelings only grew. It became a social debate lining up mostly along racial lines.

So the ITF points out that this is the biggest fine ever at a major. Jeff Tarango got about half as much for storming off at Wimbledon and calling a chair ump corrupt. His wife later slapped the judge, too.

Of course, the ITF doesn't mention that Tarango was also banned from two majors. McEnroe was once suspended for two months.

But McEnroe had been a brat for years, and that could have been a career-achievement punishment. Serena has not behaved bad nearly as often, though she did threaten a player who cheated her at this year's French Open. In fact, one tennis official told the New York Times, "We're not talking about a John McEnroe type character here."

Here was the telling quote, a bit of truth, from ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti a few weeks ago:

"I don't think (an Australian Open ban) would make much sense, because it would penalize the people handing out the punishment. For the grand slam committee to exclude her from a grand slam doesn't seem likely.

"A significant financial penalty makes more sense. But it has to be significant enough for the fans.''

They didn't want to kick her out of a major tournament because that would hurt the tournament. How is that's a concern to a governing body?

And they wanted a fine big enough to look like justice, not to serve it.

Let's go back over what really happened, over the truth.

Williams was in the semifinals of the U.S. Open playing Kim Clijsters in a tight match. Williams had been spouting off all year about how she was the real No. 1, not No. 1 ranked Dinara Safina. That had racial overtones. So did the sudden popularity of teenager Melanie Oudin, a white girl from the South, at the Open. How much of her appeal was that she was the great white hope?

So that was the setting. And Clijsters, just back from a 2 1/2-year break, was beating Williams. Williams was two points from losing when she was called for footfault on her second serve.

Did she footfault? Yes. Absolutely.

I was sitting just behind the line judge, several rows back. Other media members were sitting there too. She clearly stepped way out onto the thick baseline.

But that's not really the point. With several chances, Williams could not bring herself to play the final point. Why?

Because to her, that was less embarrassing than losing to a woman just back from maternity leave.
Williams quit this match, not planning to get thrown out, but knowing at some level that she would.

Meanwhile, McEnroe, still the face of the game in many ways, was on TV ripping the line judge, saying he didn't see a footfault and that a judge doesn't make calls like that such in a crucial situation. Juan Martin del Potro, by the way, was called for a footfault in a crucial third-set tiebreaker last week during the ATP Finals.

But whatever, McEnroe, famous for being a jerk to officials, was irresponsibly and unwittingly fueling a racial debate even though there was this truth:

From where he was sitting, he could not have seen whether Williams had actually foot-faulted.

The next day, Williams issued a statement calling it an "unfair line call.'' The day after that, with endorsers presumably upset, she issued a real apology.

She went on to win the tour championship, reclaim the No. 1 ranking, appear nude on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, pitch her new book, appear on Leno and every other show.

Did she get away with this? Obviously.

But was justice served? Well, that was never a consideration.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com

Tennis Deserves Fault for Serena's Flawed Justice originally appeared on Tennis FanHouse on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: U.S. Open, WTA

NEW YORK -- Mommy wins. That's the nicest bow to wrap around the U.S. Open, which was filled with the weird and ugly.

Kim Clijsters, back from 2 1/2 years of maternity leave, walked right back onto the tour and proved that she's already the best player in the world. At the start of the year, she couldn't believe the shape her body was in, how it wouldn't do what it used to anymore.

And on Sunday night, she won the U.S. Open, beating Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3. When it was over, Clijsters, the first mother to win a major in 29 years, had her daughter Jada on court, playing, dancing, running around.

"We tried to plan her nap time in a little bit later today," Clijsters said, "so she could be here today. There she is. It's the greatest feeling in the world, being a mother."

What a wonderful thing to say. She was standing on the court with one of the game's most important tennis trophies and a check for $1.6 million. Clijsters was a champion again, and her thoughts? It's the greatest feeling, being a mother.

It's also exactly why she's a champion again. But let's come back to that later.

It would be nice if that were the story of the night in women's tennis, the crowning of Champion Mommy. Instead, though, the night had the feel of a hangover from the wildness of the previous night.

Serena Williams wasn't there Sunday, but she managed to dominate the night, anyway. The crowd was missing the buzz that comes whenever she, or to a lesser extent her sister Venus, is there for a final. It's an event when Serena is there, a hot ticket.


But Saturday night was the de facto final, when Clijsters beat Serena in the semifinals, the match ending when Williams was given a point-penalty on match-point. Williams had gone into a tirade against a line judge who had called a foot fault on her, and threatened to stuff the (expletive) ball down the judge's (expletive) throat.

"Are you scared because I said I would hit you?" Williams said to the linesperson in front of the chair umpire and tournament officials. "I'm sorry, but there's a lot of people who've said way worse."

Shortly before the final Sunday, Williams was fined $10,000, the maximum fine for an on-court outburst, and $500 more for smashing her racquet. An investigation has begun, and that could lead to more penalties, maybe suspensions.

On TV, Mary Carillo made the strongest statements, saying that no self-respecting sport would let Williams go without suspension. "That woman (the judge) was threatened and humiliated."

Williams then issued a statement through a PR agency: "Last night, everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job. Now that I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don't agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle, I let my passion and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation poorly."

Still attacking the linesperson, huh? Unfair line call?

The call was correct. Williams' foot moved forward at least an inch onto the thick baseline. If you were sitting just behind the line judge, as I was, the fault was obvious.

Unfortunately, that overwhelmed Sunday night, too. And lost in it all was that Clijsters' story is incredible.

On her first go-round on tour, she was known as a great talent who choked in big moments. It took a seeming eternity for her to finally win a major, the 2005 U.S. Open.

But the climb to get there was so tough on her physically and mentally, that she retired to start a family.

Her long road in this return has been three tournaments. That's all it took her to win a major, this time unexpectedly. She beat Venus and Serena, the path to any major championship.

And how did she do it? She already told you:

It's the greatest feeling, being a mother.

Clijsters is not obsessed with winning anymore. On Sunday morning, she watched a children's show with Jada, who had no idea what Mommy was planning to do that day.

"I can't believe this happened," Clijsters said. "It still seems to surreal. It wasn't in the plan.

"I just wanted to come back and get a feel for it again, so that next year I would have to go back through all the new experiences again. It's great. But it's confusing as well."

Of course, there was much more to it than that. If having babies were a magical prescription for winning major tennis championships, then Clijsters wouldn't have been the first one to do it since Evonne Goolagong won Wimbledon in 1980.

Clijsters started thinking about tennis again early this year. But she took the court and realized there was going to be a serious issue with fitness.

"I had to tell myself, 'OK, Kim, you're starting from zero,' " she said. " 'I'm reteaching my body again to know how to work in tennis conditions.

"I had a few swear words. No swear words like Serena yesterday, but a few."

The final wasn't much. Wozniacki, a 19-year old already in the top 10, is on the verge of being tennis' new It Girl. But that will have to wait.

She played patiently from the baseline, waiting for Clijsters to make mistakes. Clijsters obliged for a while, but then pulled back and decided to wait to go for big shots.

In the final games, when the old Clijsters would have choked, Mommy Clijsters simply closed the deal, and dropped to her knees in celebration.

It was great being a mother.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com

Supermom Clijsters Pulls Off Stunner originally appeared on Tennis FanHouse on Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:46:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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