US.13- The F-Bombs Heard 'round the World

After as crazy a U.S. Open as we've ever seen, did we really expect anything different?


AP

After waiting all day for matches to begin (following Fernando Gonzalez's brief flameout versus Rafael Nadal to start the proceedings around noon in NYC), and truthfully not really expecting them to be played at all, we ended up getting something very memorable before the night was through. Not necessarily for all the right reasons, though.

Serena Williams never really got into her semifinal match with Kim Clijsters tonight. Or maybe the Belgian never really ALLOWED her to. While Clijsters was bedeviling the defending champ with handcuffing deep shots and good defense, Williams' play was spotty at best. It was the Serena we usually see BETWEEN the slams, not AT one. Her second serve was atrocious. Her groundstokes unrealiable. Her footwork sloppy.

Her anger was in smashing form, though. She crushed a racket after netting a backhand and dropping the 1st set 6-4, earning a code violation that would end up setting the stage for a final point heard round the world before the evening was through.

Two games into the 2nd set, consecutive Williams double-faults gave back the break she'd earned in the first game. After having had her serve broken three times in her first five matches at Flushing Meadows, this was her third break of serve in this single match. Clijsters and Williams traded breaks again for 3-3, then Serena briefly seemed as if she might awaken and power her way to another slam final. Down two break points at 3-4, she hit her way out of a hole and held serve with a three-ace game. Clijsters held serve for 6-5, setting the table for a moment that Williams likely be trying to live down for quite awhile, even though it was a situation that should never has occurred in the first place.

At 15/30, Williams was called for a foot-fault on a second serve that immediately gave Clijsters two match points. A simmering Serena then turned and made a beeline for the lineswoman who'd made the call, gesturing toward her with her racket, cursing at her and essentially telling her what she might do with the tennis ball in her hand if she made a call like that again. Thing is, the call should never have been made, not at that point in the match, and especially since replays made the call seem questionable at best. But Serena should have been better able to control herself, too.

The lineswoman ran over and tattled... err, I mean, as required, told the umpire what was said. Then, a few moments later, Williams went at her again just as the tournament referee walked onto the court. After some heated discussion and exasperation, Williams was correctly-by-rule given a second code violation for verbal abuse/unsportsmanlike conduct, the penalty for which is a point. Being that it was match point for Clijsters due to the foot-fault call, the match ended without Serena hitting another ball. She walked to the back court and shook a somewhat bewildered Clijsters' hand, and this Open had yet another bizarre moment to hang its racket bag on -- the defending champion being defeated by an unranked wild card, back-after-two-years-off, mother and former champion who actually hasn't lost a match at this tournament since the 2003 final.

Put that one in your pipe and smoke it. Just make sure a linesperson doesn't hear you and report it to the authorities.

Thing is, this match was probably only moments away from ending anyway. Clijsters far outplayed the sloppy Williams all night. But, of course, with Serena there is always that POSSIBILITY that one ace gets her on a roll that her opponent can't stop. It might have happened again. But probably not. But maybe it could have. But it wasn't likely. Well, you get the idea.

Ironically, this whole incident occurred after two days-worth of CBS rain delay replays from past Opens that often focused on on-court antics far, far worse than Serena's tonight. Maybe Serena caught a bit of it all and couldn't help herself in the heat of the moment? The result of it all ended up causing the immediate emotional response to what Williams did to be a certain "what's the big deal?" reaction. The last few days, after watching Ilie Nastase from a night match thirty years ago, and then the time-honored Jimmy Connors (smile-inducing but still) nasty tirades at the umpire during his win over Aaron Krickstein in 1991, what Serena did seemed like small potatoes, and the "I'm gonna tell" actions by a lineswoman with "virgin ears" a vast overreaction.

Those thoughts are already starting to drift away, but it was still a situation that never needed to occur at all. Not if a linesperson was aware of the importance of a moment that shouldn't be interfered with by a ticky-tack call, and then not if a player had been able to control her emotions in the heat of the moment. One didn't, then the other couldn't. The rest is Open history.

It's a pity.

So, Clijsters won 6-4/7-5 to become just the second unranked player in the Open era (Evonne Goolagong at the '77 Australian, after also returning after having had a baby) to reach a slam final. But until tomorrow night's final all the talk will be about Williams' noisy exit.

Even in ugly defeat, Serena takes centerstage. At least for tonight. But there's always tomorrow.



=DAY 13 NOTES=
...as for the other semifinal. Well, Caroline Wozniacki defeated Yanina Wickmayer 6-3/6-3 to reach her first career slam final. Congratulations to her. Who knows what really happened there, though, considering CBS didn't even deign to show a single solitary second of the match. Not even match point. Not even after going into what seemed like ten commercials breaks after the Williams/Clijsters match saying they'd return and talk about and/or look at the "other semifinal." All we ever got was Dick Enberg saying the score right before the network passed things off to the local news something like 40-45 minutes after the first match ended.

Thanks, CBS. I wonder if they'll block out half the screen when C-Woz plays Clijsters tomorrow night? Oh, that's right. CBS won't be airing that match, since it's getting shuffled over to ESPN2. And people wonder why no one in America knows any of the young non-American players. I mean, if a player with as much charm and crossover appeal as Wozniacki gets treated like a second class tennis citizen on U.S. television, what hope is there for the rest of the masses?

...in juniors, it was an all-Hordette vs. Brit pair of Girls semifinals. Russian Yana Buchina defeated Laura Robson (7-5 in the 3rd) to reach the Girls final, where she'll meet another Brit, #11 Heather Watson, who defeated #9 Daria Gavrilova. American Chase Buchanan will face Aussie Bernard Tomic in the Boys final.

...and, finally, I hope someone manages to get word to Enberg by the time CBS goes on air tomorrow with the men's semifinals that Williams wasn't, technically, "defaulted from the match" (though, truthfully, a case could have been made that she COULD have been defaulted for her verbal abuse of the lineswoman). I realize Enberg isn't as sharp as he maybe once was, but after his fellow commentators and the tournament referee noted on air that Serena was given a point penalty, which since it occurred on match point meant the match was over (otherwise, they would have played on), someone might have wanted to point it out to Dick by the time he said it the second and third time.



*WOMEN'S SINGLES FINAL*
#9 Caroline Wozniacki/DEN vs. (WC) Kim Clijsters/BEL

*MEN'S SINGLES SEMIFINALS*
#1 Roger Federer/SUI vs. #4 Novak Djokovic/SRB
#3 Rafael Nadal/ESP vs. #6 Juan Martin Del Potro/ARG

*WOMEN'S DOUBLES FINAL*
#1 Black/Huber (ZIM/USA) or #3 Stosur/Stubbs (AUS/AUS) vs. #4 Williams/Williams (USA/USA)

*MEN'S DOUBLES FINAL*
#4 Dlouhy/Paes (CZE/IND) vs. #3 Bhupathi/Knowles (IND/BAH)

*MIXED DOUBLES FINAL*
Gullickson/Parrott (USA/USA) def. #2 Black/Paes (ZIM/IND) 6-2/6-4

*GIRLS SINGLES FINAL*
Yana Buchina/RUS vs. #11 Heather Watson/GBR

*BOYS SINGLES FINAL*
Chase Buchanan/USA vs. #3 Bernard Tomic/AUS

*GIRLS DOUBLES FINAL*
#3 E.Bogdan/Lertcheewakarn (ROU/THA) vs. Solovieva/Zanevska (RUS/UKR)

*BOYS DOUBLES FINAL*
Obry/Puget (FRA/FRA) vs. Fucsovics/Hsieh (HUN/TPE)





*"Ms.OPPORTUNITY" WINNERS*
=US Open=
2004 Shinobu Asagoe, JPN
2005 Elena Dementieva, RUS
2006 Tatiana Golovin, FRA
2007 Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
2008 Jelena Jankovic, SRB
2009 Caroline Wozniacki, DEN
=2009=
AO: Vera Zvonareva, RUS
RG: Samantha Stosur, AUS
WI: Elena Dementieva, RUS
US: Caroline Wozniacki, DEN

*LOW-RANKED SLAM FINALISTS*
NR - Evonne Goolagong, 1977 Australian Open (W)
NR - KIM CLIJSTERS, 2009 US OPEN
#111 - Chris O'Neil, 1978 Australian Open (W)
#81 - Serena Williams, 2007 Australian Open (W)
#78 - Betsy Nagelsen, 1978 Australian Open (RU)
#68 - Barbara Jordan, 1979 Australian Open (W)
#66 - Venus Williams, 1997 US Open (RU)

*DEFEATED SERENA & VENUS WILLIAMS IN SAME TOURNAMENT*
KIM CLIJSTERS (twice - 2002 WTA Chsp. & 2009 US Open)
Lindsay Davenport
Steffi Graf
Justine Henin
Martina Hingis
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario

*2009 SLAM FINALISTS - BY NATION*
3...USA (2-S.Williams/1-V.Williams)
3...RUS (2-Safina/1-Kuznetsova)
1...BEL (CLIJSTERS)
1...DEN (WOZNIACKI)

*CAREER SLAM FINALS - ACTIVE*
14...Serena Williams (11-3)
14...Venus Williams (7-7)
6...KIM CLIJSTERS (1-4)
4...Maria Sharapova (3-1)
4...Svetlana Kuznetsova (2-2)

*MOST SLAM FINALS - 2000's*
13...Serena Williams (10-3)
13...Venus Williams (7-6)
11...Justine Henin (7-4)
6...KIM CLIJSTERS (1-4)
5...Lindsay Davenport (1-4)




TOP QUALIFIER: Eva Hrdinova/CZE
TOP EARLY ROUND (1r-2r): Serena Williams/USA
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): Serena Williams/USA
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): xxx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q3: Eva Hrdinova/CZE def. Laura Robson/GBR 7-6/4-6/7-6
TOP EARLY RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 2nd Rd.- Melanie Oudin/USA d. #4 Elena Dementieva/RUS 5-7/6-4/6-3
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): 3rd Rd.- Melanie Oudin/USA d. #29 Maria Sharapova 3-6/6-4/7-5
TOP LATE RD. MATCH (SF-F): xxx
=============================
FIRST SEED OUT: #25 Kaia Kanepi/EST (1st Rd.-Chang/TPE)
FIRST WIN: (WC) Vania King/USA (def. Anastasiya Yakimova/BLR)
UPSET QUEENS: The Americans
REVELATION LADIES: The Belgians
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Anastasia Rodionova/AUS (3rd Rd.)
IT GIRL: Melanie Oudin/USA
MS. OPPORTUNITY: Caroline Wozniacki/DEN
COMEBACK PLAYER: Kim Clijsters/BEL
CRASH & BURN: #4 Elena Dementieva/RUS (2nd Rd.-Oudin/USA
ZOMBIE QUEEN: #10 Flavia Pennetta/ITA (saved 6 MP in 4th Rd. vs. Zvonareva/RUS)
LAST AMERICAN STANDING: Serena Williams/USA (SF)
LAST non-WILLIAMS AMERICAN STANDING: Melanie Oudin/USA (QF)
DOUBLES STAR Carly Gullickson/USA
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: xxx



All for Day 13. More tomorrow.