Serena Knocked Out in Bizarre Finish

Serena Williams lost to Kim Clijsters in an out-of-character meltdown when she lashed out at a lineswoman for calling a foot fault.

On Saturday night, Serena was down 5-6 after losing the first set to Kim Clijsters. At 15-30, she was called for a second-serve foot fault and suddenly found herself serving to stay in the U.S. Open. That didn't last long as she yelled something quite vulgar at the line judge and cost herself an unsportsmanlike conduct call, resulting in a forfeited point.

The Associated Press quoted her as saying "If I could, I would take this ... ball and shove it down your ... throat and kill you." Although I certainly do not claim to be a professional lip reader, it is pretty clear from the replay that the pauses in that quote were expletives of the F variety.



I don't think anybody saw it playing out this way. Without knowing the full extent of what was said, her conversation with the chair ump and tournament referee when the call was made gives us a good idea that something really nasty went down. Serena was arguing with the call and yelled loudly enough for her words to be picked up on CBS, "I did not say I would kill her, are you serious!?!"

In a post-match interview, the tournament referee, Brian Earley, explained: "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. ... And it just happened that point penalty was match point. It was a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct."

The foot fault was close, I will give that to Serena. And it was poorly timed at a crucial moment in the match. But the punishment for her ensuing actions was more than justified.

There is no excuse for what happened. At nearly 28 years old (her birthday is September 26th), she has to be able to keep her cool and keep her emotions in check.

Williams was the high favorite to win the whole tournament, but she will no longer have that chance in this bizarre change of events. Clijsters was playing slightly better than Serena, but with her amazing power Serena could have easily battled from behind to force a third set.

It is a real shame to see Serena's run end like this. She was playing unbelievable tennis throughout this tournament and the match against Clijsters was close and exciting.

Despite being unseeded, Clijsters had proven to be Serena's toughest opponent thus far in the Open. She won a close first set (6-4) and traded off a few breaks with Serena in the second set. Williams just needed to hold her serve to force a second-set tiebreak. Hard to do that if you give up the final two points to rule violations.

So the finals are set in a strange sequence of events -- first the weather delayed the matches and now this.

Caroline Wozniacki knocked off Yanina Wickmayer (6-3, 6-3) and is set to play Kim Clijsters on Sunday. On the men's side, Rafael Nadal will play Juan Martin del Potro and Roger Federer will take on Novak Djokovic to establish the finals matchup for Monday.