Serena Williams lost to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5 at yesterday’s US Open semi final due to a penalty she received for unsportsmanlike conduct.<\/p>\n
The penalty just happened to be match point.<\/p>\n
“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,” Brian Earley the line referee said. “And it just happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Williams words to the umpire were, “I swear to God I’m [expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball and shove it down your [expletive] throat, you hear that? I swear to God.”<\/p>\n
Williams is called to the chair and is heard saying \u201cI didn\u2019t say I would kill you. Are you serious?\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch Video<\/p>\n
After the penalty, Williams went over to shake hands with Clijsters, who appeared stunned that she just won the match.<\/p>\n
Williams went on to say in her postmatch news conference “I used to have a real temper, and I’ve gotten a lot better”. “So I know you don’t believe me, but I used to be worse. Yes, yes, indeed.”<\/p>\n
Watch post match video<\/p>\n
“I didn’t threaten [her]. I don’t remember anymore [what I said], to be honest. I was in the moment. And, you know, everyone’s fighting for every point. It was a really crucial point,” Williams said.<\/p>\n
Asked if the line judge deserved an apology, Williams added: “An apology? From me? Well, how many people yell at linespeople? Players, athletes get frustrated. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that happen.<\/p>\n
“All year I’ve never been foot faulted, and then suddenly in this tournament they keep calling foot faults. I said something that I guess they gave me a point penalty for. Unfortunately it was on match point.”<\/p>\n
John McEnroe later said that \u2018you can\u2019t defend the indefensible.\u2019 Sure it was a bad call, but you can\u2019t just shoot off your mouth like that in a public match and not expect some consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Serena Williams lost to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5 at yesterday’s US Open semi final due to a penalty she received for unsportsmanlike conduct. The penalty just happened to be match point. “She was called for a foot fault, and a point later, she said something to a line umpire, and it was reported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[905,1039,1040],"class_list":["post-16472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tennis-news","tag-john-mcenroe","tag-serena-williams","tag-serena-williams-us-open-penalty"],"yoast_head":"\n