Comments on: Did Serena Williams Deserve What She Got?

By: Cameron

Cameron — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:32:49 +0000

“Try setting your clock earlier so you don’t have to speed to get to your huge presentation… Rules are made to be followed… if they aren’t, then why have rules? Why was Serena so pissed when a ball grazed the wrist of her opponent in the French Open?”

I side with Trey’s comments who says that the importance, closeness of the situation really derived the decision of the linesperson to call a footfault.

There is difference between the incident at the US open and at the french. Serena’s opponent knows she got hit, Serena knows she hit her but still she does not come forward. Therefore, she cheated. In video evidence, we see the ball hit her opponent. However, the evidence is not so strong for the lineswoman with some people stating that Serena probably didn’t committ a foot fault. It doesn’t look like it from the vision i’ve seen. Therefore, the call is up for interpretation and we have to go on belief of one person rather than video evidence. And in 2004, with what happened to Serena at the US open in the Quarters against Capriati, i feel that she had right to feel cheated. Go Serena. Win the Aussie Open xo

By: toast

toast — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:37:26 +0000

“Some people made the analogy of getting a speeding ticket, and others responded, “Hey, rules are rules.” So, to those folks, I ask, “Wouldn’t U be royally pissed off if U got a $150 ticket for going 1mph over the speed limit?” Hey… rules are rules, right?”

Well, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to threaten the officer. If I did, I’d fully expect to have escalated the situation to the point where I’d be having to step out the vehicle. Even if I’d been going UNDER, I’d keep my mouth shut and dispute the ticket in court wherein I’d continue to try not to act like a mental case.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:46:26 +0000

The main thing is that a foot fault is NOT a subjective call.
It’s either the player stepped on the line or the player did not.

For all the people saying the line judge shouldn’t call it at that time, is like telling a referee not to call OUT OF BOUNDS on an NBA Player in the last few seconds, or an NFL player on the last play.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:01:49 +0000

JEEZ! calm down and win the round!

She lost it mainly because of the pressure, its like distilled water in a microwave.

Not cool.

By: gil utanes

gil utanes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:16:47 +0000

Bottom line is, it’s the principle of the thing. What are guidelines for if they can be compromised – for superstars or for the “seriousness of the moment”? Scrap them! Integrity my foot. Or why have umpires, referees, linespersons, etc. There are better ways to decorate the court.

By: Rafael Vital Jr.

Rafael Vital Jr. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:53:37 +0000

You can put the blame on 3 entities here – the USTA head official, the linesman, and Serena. The USTA head official should have chosen the very best linesman for the vital match, someone with good eyes and bigger in size. Players are less likely to overreact to someone big wearing no thick glasses.

The rules in tennis are constantly broken, ie the 25 second time limit between points. The lines lady made a questionable call (instant replays were inconclusive) for whatever reason at a very critical stage of the match. That non-obvious foot fault should have never been called at that stage of the match.

Serena’s behavior/anger was uncalled for. Ok, the call was questionable, but you allowed your feet to get too close to that line and as such you should accept the consequences. Viciously breaking that racket is wrong and it sends bad messages to our youth. Saying those things to the umpire is really really wrong. And, not owning up to your bad actions/behaviour and brushing it aside as something insignificant is really really wrong too. She should strive to work on her anger more so that her brilliant game.

By: FeFe

FeFe — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:02:22 +0000

She apologized only after Nike stepped in. So now the story is about how she wants to be a positive role model for kids and not about her #1 claim. Clever girl. With record US Open attendance, I saw not evidence of it in this match or their doubles title. How many times will the WTA bend the rules for the Williams?

By: Armer

Armer — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:31:38 +0000

Well said sir Tomaz.
But Serena knew exactly what she was doing and the consequences of her actions. Down 2 match points and out of sorts she did what she had to do to deny Kim a legitimate 2nd victory over her!! Serena has never been a good sport.

By: hochiminh

hochiminh — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:57:45 +0000

she could allow to play tennis with entry fee of $50,000.00 per game, we could use this money to help those homeless people. Hey we are living in the capitalism world, I could see money talk here.

By: Tomaz

Tomaz — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:04:13 +0000

A question Serena must ponder now is whether she would prefer to be right (it was not a foot fault so let’s argue about it) and lose or whether she would prefer to be wrong (I believe it was foot fault but I’ll accept the wrong call OR It was the foot fault and I really made a mistake) and win the US Open.

Because when she reacted to the line judge’s call, she forgot what she actually prefers. That’s one thing professional tennis players who devote their entire time to success on the court must not forget.

Winning the match is always more important that trying to prove that you are right (even when you really are and you got a bad line call).

The emotions that arise when you start arguing about right and wrong almost always affect your game negatively and at least in the modern era I have never seen a call being reversed after being made.

So logically, there is no point in arguing – except perhaps sending a few signals to the umpire that you disagree which may help raise the alertness level of the chair umpire so that there will be less mistakes in the future.

The only one who loses when arguing is the player – so that’s the lesson all tennis players can learn from this…