Fear Serena Williams

Watching Serena Williams go all Henry Gates on a line judge at the U.S. Open this weekend was an ugly scene for the sport of tennis. Much like Gates, Williams appeared to be in the right in her cause, but very much in the wrong in the way she handled it. Williams dropped more f-bombs than overheads and threatened to shove a tennis ball down the line judge's throat for calling a foot-fault on the play. Serena Williams was penalized one point, giving the match win to her opponent and bouncing her from the tournament. Gates, as you remember, was the Harvard professor arrested for going off on the cops who arrested him after he was caught breaking into his own house. Both had a gripe for what they were being accused of - a foot-fault isn't quite as serious as breaking and entering, but the symetry shouldn't be lost nevertheless - and both decided to go on extreme over-the-top explosions.



The crazy-ass tirade aside, the most despicable part of this entire ordeal was how Serena simply brushed off the incident in the post-game interview. The American tennis star didn't overtly deny threatening the life of the line judge, but offered the excuse that she had never been in a fight in her life, so she didn't know why the line judge would have any reason to fear her.

No reason to fear her?! Really?

How about the crazy angry lady menacingly heading toward you threatening to jam a fuzzy yellow ball down your throat. I might be somewhat intimidated by that, and I don't blame the line judge for fearing for her own safety. Williams has a racket, the line judge has nothing. Williams is a world-class athlete, the line judge sits in a chair. This would not have been a fair fight to say the least.

For Serena Williams to act innocent as if she didn't do anything wrong is completely disgusting and puts a black eye on American tennis as one of the country's top players is eliminated from the U.S. Open for throwing a hissy-fit.

Foot-fault? No.

Foot in mouth? Absolutely.