Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Just $2,000?

Ok, so anyone who watched the US Open this week knows about the Serena Williams episode. Serena, who yelled "Come on!" as she unleashed an inside-out forehand to Stosur's backhand, was charged with "intentional hindrance"--meaning that her yell interfered with Stosur's attempt to return the ball. First of all, I agree with the call--grunting while hitting is one thing, but blatantly yelling words while the opponent is running down the ball is another. Either way, the call was controversial.

What ensued, though, was utterly disgusting. Serena, over the next 10-15 minutes, repeatedly glared at and yelled at the chair ump, saying things like "I truly despise you," "You are unattractive on the inside," and "Don't even look at me in the hallway, you don't want to look at me," which to me seems like a not-so-thinly veiled threat of abuse. Serena was then charged a code violation for verbal abuse.

For Serena, this is nothing new. Remember this? And Serena is still "on watch" from that incident, which means she needs two clean years of tennis to avoid being banned from future grand slam events. Well, she juuuust made it, I guess, because the USTA only fined her $2,000 for her behavior at the match. In any other sport, jawing at the officiating crew in such a manner would result in an immediate ejection, perhaps a suspension (without pay) from a game or two or many, and maybe even a fine on top of that. Serena was charged $2,000, with no "repeat offender" punishment, no suspension, no ejection, anything.

Here's how laughable Serena's punishment is: in the 73 minutes that match lasted, Serena made $900,000 for being the runner-up. That means she made $12,329 PER MINUTE in that match. Which means that during her tirade, which lasted 10 minutes or so, she made $123,290, and was fined $2,000. So she netted $121,000 for her outburst. Hell, maybe we should all start yelling at USTA refs!

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