Foot in Mouth? In Defense of Serena Williams

I'm a big tennis fan, and nothing pleased me more than the recent good headlines coming from the womens game at the US Open: Cinderella Oudin, The Return of Mighty Mamma Clijsters, The Tenacious Euro Teens Reaching Semi Debut.

Much better than the usual complaints and argument about rankings. But what went on at the end of a scintillating second set in the Williams-Clijsters match up has gone on to ruin that.

Quite frankly, I feel pretty flat about the finals coming up tonight- and it has nicht to do with the worthy and deserving competitors who'll play, Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniaki.

I'm miffed because of the unequivocal and pious bashing Serena William's is taking for the default point on match point. Let us get this straight: at 3-5 (Clijsters), in the second set, on 15-30 with Williams on her second serve, the lines woman called a foot fault. To clarify, a foot fault occurs when a player touches the baseline or the court with either foot. This decision, with its subsequent point penalty, brought the game to match point. Now, who really thinks this is a good decision to call such a minor infraction at THAT time? I feel like Chandler from Friends asking, Can there BE a worse time?

Remember, this is the marque match. For all intents and purposes, this is the US Open Womens Final with the defending champion facing off with the comeback kid. In non-headline terms, a match with Serena engaged and dominated by the only player in the womens draw, not called Williams, able to truly threaten the 11-time Grand Slam winner at a Grand Slam.

The answer is no: there really couldn't be a worse time. From this erroneous decision, one that on replay looks dubious to boot, followed a sorry chain of events which leaves neither player nor tournament looking especially good. Serena Williams did unleash her fury on the lines woman, yes. Everyone saw how vexed she was, and everyone probably hoped she wouldn't edge back over the fateful second time having walked back to her service position. But she did. And it led to the Code Violation point deduction and match over.

I am not arguing the right and wrong of what Serena did- she had a choice, although her frustration at the time was wholly understandable. But just as Serena had a choice, so too did the lines woman. She had the choice to call that fault or not, to evaluate the degree of the infraction against the moment of play.

Veteran USTA tennis official Carol Cox, who evaluates the lines men and referees, said in an excellent article on the NYTimes Straight Sets blog that there are two schools of thought on making a foot fault call at a critical juncture : "call it when you see it; or don't make a call that can decide a match unless it's flagrant". No 'in other words' needed here- unless the player has systematically made these faults through the match or puts their size 10's some meters in court, you don't have to make the call! That is their 'get out of jail' card, allowing the lines man more margin for interpretation than most of the paid pundits or armchair critics care to recognise.

I haven't trawled through all the papers and blogs out there (by choice), but it doesn't take long to see the easy route most people are choosing: to blame Williams for unsportsman like behaviour, rather than or in addition to acknowledging the howler of a mistake that this line woman made with her suspect fault call. Filip Bondy's NY Daily article was equally appalled by the way broadcast commentators rounded on Serena so vehemently, as if shouting at the refs and lines men was something new, even if never right.

I say call it as it is. It takes two to tango, but only one whose name we all know.