See Serena play tennis

January 24th, 2010

Did you notice any temper outbursts or tantrums?

Last Tuesday Serena Williams played tennis like a dream. There were no outbursts and she swiftly and professionally demolished her overmatched opponent, Urszula Radwanska, in straight sets. After the match, Serena questioned the size of the fine given to her for threatening to shove a ball down a line judge’s throat last year at the U.S. Open. “A $92,000 fine is just too severe!”

No excuses

Williams made no excuses for her bad behavior. She said she was trying to turn the incident into a positive by raising money for charities, including the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. But still, she said, “Ninety-two thousand dollars is a lot of money to fine someone,” she said. “I always said what I did wasn’t right, but I turned that around and I’m actually raising $92,000 for my school in Africa.”

What actually happened?

Williams was charged with a point penalty on match point after yelling at a line judge for a calling a foot fault on her previous serve. The ruling gave Kim Clijsters a victory in their semifinal match, which had been delayed 32 hours because of rain. After the line judge called the foot fault, Williams stared her down before screaming at her. After a few seconds, Serena turned around to serve, thought better of it and resumed the badgering. The chair umpire then called the line judge to ask what Serena had said, rules officials were summoned, a brief summit occurred at the net and it was determined that Serena would be assessed a point penalty for a conduct violation. The point gave Clijsters the match.

Sheer tension

The whole incident can be blamed on sheer tension. The weeks of training, the muscles and brain at full stretch close to snapping point, the match, the play and the rain. Then came the foot fault call. It was a terrible call. It cannot be made at the end of any match, let alone in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. That’s when Serena really crossed the line.

Worse

From there is got worse. There were multiple profanities, more threats and a lot of pointing. Serena was soon defending herself against accusations that she had threatened to kill the line judge. Even John McEnroe said it was a bit much.

$92,000

Ninety-two thousand dollars is a lot of money. It’s true that Serena can afford it – to date her winnings on the tennis court amount to $28.5 million and at age 29 she still has a few years of good tennis ahead of her. She also has won more Grand Slam titles than any other active female player and has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history

Pay up

So pay up with a smile, Serena, and write off the $92,000 as a business expense. See if the income tax people will recognize this as a legitimate expense incurred while earning.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 4:33 am and is filed under Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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