Sunday, September 13, 2009
Serena’s U.S. Open Tirade Costs Her
On a cool New York night, Serena Williams provided some heat, going down in flames with a volley of words, not shots. And you knew I wouldn't let this pass quietly. It may be a little later than my compatriots, but no less important.
Serena Williams is, as she said last night, "intense." As I have found out, though, she is only "intense" when she is losing or someone has a different opinion from hers. And it came out last night the biggest way. For the first time, most of the U.S. and world finally saw it first-hand.
The idealistic image of the Williams sisters cracked last night. So much that my colleges in the media who are enamored with her didn't know what to do or say. Mary Joe Fernandez looked like someone had just shot a family member. She spent most of the time referring to Serena being defaulted, but that is not what happened. Mary Joe should know, having played on the professional tour for many years. It seems Mary Joe forgot the rules. Or just didn't want to believe what she had just seen.
I'll congratulate Dick Enberg for saying that Serena's conduct is not that of a champion. I will correct him, though, for repeating several times that she was defaulted from the tournament. Serena wasn't. Tennis has always been looked at as the polite, civil sport. The actual rules of tennis are few compared to other sports, and tennis is guided more by a booklet called "The Code" than the actual rules. The codes are guides, not hard and fast rules. In tennis, you can give points to your opponent if you believe that a mistake was made. You say sorry if you toss the ball to serve and catch it before hitting it, and are supposed to acknowledge apologetically when a net cord shot falls in your favor. You warm your opponent up and you shake hands at the end of a match.
Over the years, actual rules of conduct have been instituted at the competitive level. Partially brought by the "intensity" that John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Ilie Nastase brought to the game. Partially brought on by succeeding generations of players who have bought into the professional sports hero hype. Serena said again last night that her idol was John McEnroe. Even John tried to distance himself from that when he was doing commentary after the match. John need not worry, as there is a very long distance from "you cannot be serious" to "I'm going to f'n shove this ball down your f'n throat." Jimmy Connors was intense, but there is a continent that divides a once 39-year-old player making his last great stand, playing his heart out and screaming "get outta the chair, get outta here" and "I'm gonna shove this f'n ball down your f'n throat."
The Compton came out last night, in a huge way. Compton is a badge warn by and hailed by rappers, entertainers, and anyone who wants to claim they are streetwise. It has a special connotation because it notes a very aggressive, dangerous type of street life. Let's not forget that Serena hails from Compton.
So here is what actually happened. After losing the first set to a very, very focused, fit, and ready Kim Clijsters, Serena had a tirade, taking it out on her racquet in what was clearly now known in the rules as racquet abuse, and also known as a conduct penalty. The first violation was a warning, which Serena got. Kim Clijsters played controlled tennis, made fewer errors, and was way ahead of Serena in all the statistics of consistency. Serena played the only game she knows how, and it wasn't working. We've seen this before, and it usually leads to Serena losing in the end.
So the second set continues, pretty much Clijsters matching Serena shot for shot and looking like she isn't going to fall due to her nerves as she was prone to early in her career. Serena began to lose it mentally, and actually started to notice she was making errors. In other matches, she would make the same, but in those matches, she would dominate play so much that they didn't matter. At 4-5, Williams ran four straight points on her serve to tie the second set. Then Kim immediately turned around and did the same to Serena, and it clearly had an effect on Serena. Clijsters didn't run away, and wasn't intimidated by the forceful game. She did Serena one better.
Now comes the final game. Serena misses an easy backhand. Serves an ace. Then misses another easy backhand. Faults on her first serve, then gets called for a foot fault. Then she explodes. It was the first time she goes over to the lineswoman and states her now infamous line. Then she walks back to the baseline. Had she stopped there, the incident would have passed without much fanfare. Then she walked back to the lines woman and unloaded again. Out came the tournament referee. After a quick discussion, Serena walked across the court, shook Clijsters' hand, said congrats, and left the court. I've known Serena long enough to know that this was her way of trying to avoid having to say she actually lost on court.
Serena made it look like a default, like the tournament threw her out. Mary Joe thought so, as did many members of the media. Several minutes of commentary later, even after the explanation by the tournament referee that Serena had been given the normal point penalty for a second conduct offense, unfortunately at match point, they continued to let Serena make it look like a default and therefore shift blame. Shame on my media colleagues who still this morning let that seem like what happened.
Immediately after the match, the television cameras caught Venus and Serena in the stadium tunnels, at one point Serena smiling and laughing. In the press conference, Serena was gracious enough to give some credit to Kim, but it was classic Serena. First, she said that she had already "put the incident behind her" and what she shared with Venus after the match was between them. Fair enough, as there should always be some privacy allowed, but she would have said what it was if it was something that benefitted her.
Then she said Kim Clijsters played "incredible." My colleagues think this was a compliment. No, this is Williams language for no one can beat me if they just play regularly. In Serena's mind, she never loses nor can lose. If she loses a match, it is always because she made too many errors or she did something to lose, not that her opponent actually played better and beat her. In order to beat her, you must play incredible tennis. Kim played great, no doubt, and I really enjoyed watching her play a good match. It was not, however, the best match she has ever played, nor a match of incredible tennis.
The foot fault call was questionable. I couldn't find a replay or picture that was definitive, one way or the other. Call it a bad call, but the call alone was not the reason Serena was about to lose, nor enough to bring on a tirade like the one she had. Yes, a champion would have vented quickly, then stepped up to the line and served and ace or played an incredible point to erase the call. Serena knew in her heart that the match was over, that she had met her match that day, and instead let it all out on the line judge. Serena knew exactly what she said, and knew what the rules say about it. In her press conference, she said that she didn't think she would get a point penalty for it. Why? Because she is Serena, and no one dare do something like that to her in such an important match. You don't do that to Serena.
Well, they did. Serena is gone. Yes, the TV ratings will be lower because it's just Kim Clijsters versus heretofore unknown Caroline Wozniacki. And unless the unbelievable happens, Kim will win her second U.S. Open title. Wait, according to most of the commentary today, the unbelievable already did...