Serena Williams Foot Fault TranscriptSerena Williams and Kim Clijsters ended in bizarre fashion, as Williams received a point penalty for abusing an official. The question people are asking now though, is: What did Serena say to the official? As reported from Newsday, Clijsters was just two points from victory, when Serena was called for a foot fault on a second serve, giving Clijsters match point in the process. Williams then proceeded to the line judge to argue the claim, where she was thought to have yelled obscenities too, which then led to a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. This meant automatic loss of point, and the match then went to Clijsters 6-4, 7-5. It ended up being a very controversial taking point, to what was a highly entertaining match. Didn’t look like a fault to me. Chair should have overruled and let them play. It is ridiculous to have a match taken away by a bad foot fault call. I do not blame Serena for being irate. I give her credit for handling the situation with class. The line judge overreacted.
I don’t think the out burst would have happened if she was winning. That’s the problem. She is so used to winning that she gets frustrated when she is losing. She needs to apologize, which she will after she calms down or she will join the ranks of J Conners. It is moments like this that separate the women from the girls. To her credit, she shock hands with her opponent before leaving the court. But her frustration at her opponent was taken out on the line judge. I think they both played a outstanding game but kim came out ready to play.Serena was frustrated with herself because she couldn’t play her game the way she wanted to unfortunately she slamed her racket and she was penalizedd the first set,I think the Line lady was wrong when she called a foot fault, but Serena could have used better language to defend herself. I think her and her sisteer are some awesome players.
Serena stated she forgot what she yelled at the line judge during the press conference, so I thought I would attach the transcript to refresh her memory: “i swear to god i’m f**king going take this ball and shove it down your f**king throat. okay. i swear to god. okay. you don’t f**k me like that. understand. you don’t f**k me like that. you don’t call that” Her behaviour was a disgrace. The call was irrelevant, nothing can justify that level of aggression and abuse towards a linesperson. She not only verbally abused the official, she also physically threatened her. She fully deserved to be disqualified. I think the “foot fault” was a horrible call. I think Serena’s reaction and subsequent behavior was despicable. But, you know, I could get over all that.
