Serena Williams’s angry outburst over umpire’s call

By David Grange

In the final match of the latest Women’s US open tournament against opponent Samantha Stosur, Serena Williams lost her temper when the umpire made a call that she didn’t like. After serving the ball Serena yelled “C’mon” before her opponent had a chance to get to the ball. The umpire cited Williams for committing “intentional hindrance”, meaning that she purposely tried to distract her opponent to keep her from successfully returning the ball. The call came when Williams and Stosur were at a break point in the match and put Stosur ahead of Williams. Williams went on a verbal rant that was directed at umpire Eva Asderaki, calling her names like “hater” and “unattractive on the inside”. Williams is already on probation for a previous outburst in 2009 at another tournament but was only fined $2000 for her outburst. This latest incident was not enough to ban her from participating in future tournaments, but her anger cost her $2000 and possibly the respect of fans and other players for her un-sportsman like conduct. Williams has stated that she didn’t even remember what she had said to umpire Asderaki, which is evidence that when you are angry, you really can’t think correctly. Instead of thinking about what was going on and responding in an appropriate manner, Williams just reacted to the situation and it ended up only costing her more in the long run.

References
Fogarty, D. (2011) Video: Person On Fox News Doesn’t Know Why Serena Williams Called Umpire “Hater,” Wonders If It Was Racial, from http://www.sportsgrid.com/tennis/serena-williams-us-open-outburst-hater-racial/

http://www.foxsports.com.au/tennis/serena-fined-us2000-for-umpire-rant-in-us-open-womens-singles-final-against-samantha-stosur/story-e6frf4mu-1226135324684