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Williams argues fault, Clijsters wins
NEW YORK (AP) - September 12, 2009 On match point in the U.S. Open semifinals Saturday night,
defending champion Williams was penalized a point for
unsportsmanlike conduct - a bizarre, ugly finish that gave a 6-4,
7-5 upset victory to unseeded, unranked Kim Clijsters.
The match featured plenty of powerful groundstrokes and lengthy
exchanges. No one will remember a single shot that was struck,
though, because of the unusual, dramatic way it ended.
With Williams serving at 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, she
faulted on her first serve. On the second serve, a line judge
called a foot fault, making it a double-fault - a call rarely, if
ever, seen at that stage of any match, let alone the semifinals of
a Grand Slam tournament.
That made the score 15-40, putting Clijsters one point from
victory.
Instead of stepping to the baseline to serve again, Williams
went over and shouted and cursed at the line judge, pointing at her
and thrusting the ball toward her.
"If I could, I would take this ... ball and shove it down your
... throat," Williams said.
She continued yelling at the line judge, and went back over,
shaking her racket in the official's direction.
Asked in her postmatch news conference what she said to the line
judge, Williams wouldn't say, replying, "What did I say? You
didn't hear?"
"I've never been in a fight in my whole life, so I don't know
why she would have felt threatened," Williams said with a smile.
The line judge went over to the chair umpire, and tournament
referee Brian Earley joined in the conversation. With the crowd
booing - making part of the dialogue inaudible - Williams then went
over and said to the line judge: "Sorry, but there are a lot of
people who've said way worse." Then the line judge said something
to the chair umpire, and Williams responded, "I didn't say I would
kill you. Are you serious? I didn't say that." The line judge
replied by shaking her head and saying, "Yes."
Williams already had been give a code violation warning when she
broke her racket after losing the first set. So the chair umpire
now awarded a penalty point to Clijsters, ending the match.
"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," Earley explained. "And it just
happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code
violation for unsportsmanlike conduct."
When the ruling was announced, Williams walked around the net to
the other end of the court to shake hands with a stunned Clijsters,
who did not appear to understand what had happened.
"I used to have a real temper, and I've gotten a lot better,"
Williams said later. "So I know you don't believe me, but I u
sed
to be worse. Yes, yes, indeed."
Lost in the theatrics was Clijsters' significant accomplishment:
In only her third tournament back after 2½ years in retirement, the
26-year-old Belgian became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam
final since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon 1980.
"The normal feelings of winning a match weren't quite there,"
Clijsters said. "But I think afterwards, when everything kind of
sunk in a little bit and got explained to me about what happened,
yeah, you kind of have to put it all in place, and then it becomes
a little bit easier to understand and to kind of not celebrate, but
at least have a little bit of joy after a match like that."
Clijsters hadn't competed at the U.S. Open since winning the
2005 championship. Now she will play for her second career major
title Sunday against No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who beat
Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-3, 6-3 in the other rain-delayed
women's semifinal.
Williams came into the day having won three of the past four
Grand Slam titles, and 30 of her previous 31 matches at major
tournaments.
She was playing fantastically at the U.S. Open, not losing a set
before Saturday and having lost her serve a total of three times
through five matches.
But Clijsters - who beat Williams' older sister, No. 3 Venus, in
the fourth round - was superb, matching strokes and strides with as
strong and swift a woman as the game has to offer.
Williams, meanwhile, kept making mistakes, and two backhand
errors plus a double-fault contributed to a break at love that put
Clijsters ahead 4-2.
When Williams netted backhands on consecutive points at 5-4,
Clijsters had broken her for the second time and taken the opening
set. The last backhand was the 14th unforced error made by Williams
to that point - twice as many as Clijsters - and the American
bounced her racket, caught it, then cracked it against the blue
court, mangling the frame.
When Williams walked to the changeover, she clanged it against
the net post and was given a warning for racket abuse by the chair
umpire.
That would prove pivotal about an hour later, at match's end.
"I mean, the timing is unfortunate, you know," Clijsters said.
"To get a point penalty at the time, it's unfortunate. But there
are rules, and you know, like I said, it's just unfortunate that it
has to happen on a match point."
