I've played junior tennis and in college. Foot faults are rarely called because players rarely foot fault. You take thousands of serves in practice and after all that you know exactly where you're standing. Ergo foot faults are rare. But you realize that particular linesman's JOB is to watch for the foot fault right? that's why she's there. Do you want her to sit there and get paid and pretend she didn't see a fault, because it's Serena Williams and it's the US Open? You and Stern must get along well. there's no need to imagine, you know exactly what he would say. he'd say are you blind what are you watching? I'm busting my ass out here and you're there making terrible calls. You're the worst, you're incompetent, have some pride and get off the court. conners was more crude than mac, he'd probably do something with his racket resembling a bronx cheer or a sex act. neither of them would threaten the lineman with physical violence, go back to them repeatedly, or lie when questioned what they said. also mcenroe, conners, navratilova etc took it to the chair umpire, who at least is an equal and has the ability to assess penalities and fight back. a linesman is prohibited from saying anything back or will get fired. serena was basically being a bully, like beating up on a maid or yelling at an underling at work you know cant do **** back to you... all because she had the audacity to simply do her job. Serena has a way of putting falestto into her off the court to be nonthreatening and the media lets her slide so as to not be prejudiced against her but this isn't the first time she's had this sort of incident. this past French Open she threatened to beat up another player once they got into the lockerroom, saying the exact same phrase she threatened the lineman with "you dont know me" coupled with a physical threat. Yeah, that's what's wrong with tennis. Not enough corruption. Umpires are obviously there to make the games more exciting and give the fans someone to root for by bolstering stars rather than there to impartially enforce the rules. The person who's an idiot is the person who watches tennis and doesn't realize that the line is there as a limit to where the server can stand. it doesn't matter if you're one inch in or 3 feet in, it's the same violation. If you cant see that then you really dont understand sports at all and probably never played tennis in your life. and the foot fault was not on the game winner if you're going to be asinine and technical. it was at 15-30. what made it a "game winner" is Serena's reaction to it and being deducted a point. Serena had been assessed a foot fault earlier and had previously been awarded a warning for an earlier outburst. It's a total meltdown that she lost track of where she was and then basically gave up on the match by throwing that tantrum. That was the shocking thing about this incident, that a longtime champion like that would totally lose all sense of pride or strategy rather than a linesman doing her job or the tournament ref enforcing the rules.
The difference is that NBA fouls are judgment calls, while tennis violations are yes/no calls. Do you think an NBA ref should call a player stepping out of bounds on a game-winning drive, even if that step out of bounds doesn't give them an advantage? Then why have foot fouls? If there's no advantage to be gained, why not let players do it all the time?
That tantrum was so mild compared to some of the things i've seen over the years in tennis -- some of you are acting like Serena stabbed that woman. Tennis needs more of that kind of emotion.
I think Obama should have the little Asian lineswoman and Serena over for a beer... or some wine for the ladies.
You think threatening a line judge like that is acceptable? Arguing loudly with emotion is one thing, but what Serena said was just crazy. She got what she deserved.
Yup - that wouldn't be tolerated in any sport. MLB, NBA, NFL, etc. You'd be ejected for that - she just got docked a point.
Heat of the moment after a terrible call -- I agree she shouldn't have gone so far with her comments, but honestly we've all heard much worse.
Djokovic played like a champ and honestly couldn't have done much better. Roger Federer is just not even human.
Do we know at this point specifically what Serena said the linesman ? I've already posted a video of something much more outrageous than Williams and the line judge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FrMsTIbhjA Here's a good vid She went way overboard and should have been immediately ejected. I know athletes play emotionally, but there needs to remain some sanity.
Yes, it's been reported multiple places. But if you don't know what was said, how do you know that there's been much worse said before?
The NBA reference was to the context of the game. If the game is on the line, no they won't call brush fouls. The tennis game is clearly a judgment call. You think NBA refs call palming or carrying every time they see it? They might if it's the first quarter, but in the last 2 minutes of a 2-10 point game? nope. If her foot was even past the line or halfway on the line, then whatever but it was like nudging the line. Even if she step over the line with both feet, that's still a bad call. That's why they shouldn't put my mom as a line judge for professional tennis, they don't know crap about sports.
Except it's not a judgment call - it's a simple call: either she was on the line, or she wasn't. Just like an in/out call for the ball on a point, or an in/out call with your foot on the line in football. Things like holding or pass interference or NBA fouls are judgment calls because a certain amount of contact is allowed and the ref has to determine whether the action crosses the line of what's legal or not. Other calls, like this one, or false starts in football, or out-of-bounds calls in all sorts of sports are not judgment calls - there's a right and wrong call, no questions asked. Here, assuming the foot was on the line (we don't have any good angle video to confirm), it was the correct call. The last thing you want is refs/judges having more discretion on when to call those things. Palming is a judgment call. But when they call it in the 1st but not last 2 minutes, that's dumb. The refs are basically saying that the player that does the palming should have an advantage late in the game. I much prefer they have line judges who actually do their job instead of people who decide the rules arbitrarily change depending on the magnitude of the situation.
