Justinne Welcome Back. What can be more interesting­ than having: The Williams Sisters, Maria Sharapova, Kim­ and Justinne in addition to the rusians.
Great for­ Tennis next year we hope. Womens tennis will be back to­ its best and be more profitable. Each of these players­ reprsent an empire. Think about Davis Cup and fed cup­ with the return of these exciting players representing­ these top countries. Think of the exciting players in­ the mix-Oudin, Wozniak-The Belgian, The American Team,­ the Russians....I am excited

r3688-I totally agree with your point about players­ being able to challenge foot faults now that the new­ system is somewhat effective.

I am in total agreement with most of the comments.­ Serena was wrong, the call was untimely. She need to be­ left alone. Will Roger Federer be investigated for his­ outburst in his final. He is a sad looser. It will be­ interesting to see the final decision of the ITF in­ this so-called investigation and the outcome. The­ loosers will be the many tournament organisers and the­ tennis associations. No event is the same with the­ Williams sisters not around. Yes there is Clisters and­ Justinne returning from retirement. Kim as much as I­ love her does not and will never be capable of­ producing the consistent quality tennis and create the­ levels of interest the Williams sisters does.

Since the advent of Hawkseye, footfault calls (as they­ are not challengeable yet) should have been thrown out­ of the sport ; it is just plain logical and common­ sense. If a call can change the score, then it must be­ challengeable by Hawkseye.

Millions of tennis­ fans(unless you are a die-hard Clijsters fan or a­ psychopathic Serena hater) must be livid over the most­ untimely disruption of a riveting match between 2 top­ stars; this was the marquee match of the US Open which­ millions have eagerly waited 3 days (cuz rain-delayed)­ to see only to have it marred into an unnatural­ conclusion by a silly inopportune line call made at THE­ MOST CRITICAL moment.

you can say that again sanchez.santos. these bad people­ are just making the maximum mileage out of a few choice­ words Serena used in her great exasperation and anger­ at a critical moment of disruption. A doting Mother on­ one of her bad days would have been guilty of the same­ thing by these bad hats' standards cuz she would­ have verbally threatened her annoying child with "­ If I could...I would throttle you!" and she would­ be holding a steaming hot ladle in her hand (cuz she­ just happens to be cooking when she snapped) which is­ far worse than a racket! But the child would never have­ been in danger of being snuffed out. Rathe rlike Serena­ who apologised after having fully considered everything­ with a composed mind later, the Mother would have­ regretted her words and be hugging the child the next­ day and feeding her her fave chocolate cake!

Bravo r3688 for getting your facts right, what a shame­ though that you are preaching to largely unmoveable­ objects! However I can testify that when you examine­ cameron w's words carefully, his sentiments would­ not be as bad as it appeared at first glance and, in­ concurring with the 'sapient tongued' pjcoggs,­ bobito is usually first class on over a hundred topics­ he has written about in the last eighteen months, bar­ two topics, serena and drug testing. in the latter case­ I think he unwisely would not look at the bigger­ picture and realise that a sporting body simply cannot­ disassociate itself from drug testing in the twenty­ first century and, in serena's case, lets just say­ there is something about serena that gives some people­ goose bumps, however irrational, and makes an otherwise­ sensible person loses his or her human compassion and­ sense of proportionality.

I am surprised that Serena haters with a bad agenda are­ still at it even though Serena has been docked points,­ fined twice and apologised, despite the call being­ wrong. The biggest damage to tennis comes from these­ people who are out to destroy careers of those players­ they dont like for their own narrow-minded reasons. I­ am surprised these people are tennis fans cuz if they­ are true tennis fans then they wouldnt hate the­ Williams sisters or other tennis greats. I was outraged­ whe some compared Serena to Jeff Tarango who is a­ repeat offendor of abusive and unruly behaviour on­ court and whose wife had even physically assaulted the­ umpire. Clearly these haters dont care about­ Serena's impeccable on court demeanor prior to that­ incident . Serena is a 1st time offendor. Her case is­ one of 100% verbal abuse only; she made it very clear­ with "If I could..." that there would be no­ physical assault and the lineswoman was never in peril­ of physical assault. Serena has already been docked 2­ points (is that unprecedented in tennis history?),­ fined the record maximum TWICE and she has apologised.­ Anyone who thinks that is still not enough for just­ 100% verbal abuse only should be ashamed of their­ motives.

rasism is a huge thing especially in tennis you may or­ may not want to talk about it but it is there. There­ seems to be a vendeta especially against the William­ sisters, i have often had to switch my volume off when­ the William sisters are playing because the criticism­ they get is unbeliviable, they work hard and they are­ very good at what they do, why is it so hard for people­ to acknowledge that, not that many commentators are­ very kind to them and many of them have not even won­ any majors.the media is just as bad.If racism stops­ then only can we stop talking about but if it is still­ there then we shall talk about it more and more!

Serena was right to put the whole ugly sceen behind­ hern quickly. She did the right thing by apologising­ and quickly moved on. Some of you writing on here make­ me laugh, how many times have we had a right go at­ someone in the heat of the moment and then had to­ apologise afterwards. I know I have, this is life we­ do something that makes us look real bad and some of us­ are BIG enough to apologise and some of us are­ not.
Serena did not commit MURDER she simply lost her­ cool which is so very uncharacteristic of her. This is­ not a perfect world and people are not perfect so stop­ expecting everyone to live up to some of you high moral­ standard.

Eel,
Poison has been spewed here on these forums about­ every other player.
be it roger federer or monica­ seles, every playeer has been at the receiving end many­ times.
Why is it that only when we talk about the­ willaims sisters do you see racism in it?
as i had­ asked in one of the message threads, why is any comment­ critical of serena deemed racist? and how long will you­ sidestep serenas arrogance and loud behaviour using­ racism as an excuse?
does this mean coloured players­ can do anything and expect not to be criticised?
get­ off your high horse dude.
serenas behaviour on several­ occasions has been a disgrace to sport.
but banning her­ isnt an option. she has embarrassed her suffficiently.­ we should get over this episode and get back to serious­ tennis. and puhlease stop crying racism ... isnt funny.

Those who insist a white media criticising a black­ athlete MUST BE RACIST, might also deduce that a black­ athlete abusing a small Asian woman MUST BE RACIST. To­ me race has nothing to do with this, but you can't­ have it both ways.

Eel, homogenising the desires of "white­ people" is racist, get a grip. This story is by­ Reuters not Eurosport, and the topic isn't dead­ because Serena's still under investigation by the­ ITA.

Serena never said she was going to ram the ball down­ her throat nor did she try to. She said 'if I­ could': IF. The lineswoman was under no threat,­ immediate or otherwise. And I stand behind my belief­ that the race of the 'victim' and­ 'perpetrator' matters in the reaction­ afterwards. THis is in no way intended to minimize the­ 'objective' evaluation of Serena's rant.­ She was excessive in terms of form and content and was­ duly penalized. Had the lineswoman been Black, this­ fine would suffice, but because she is Asian, she­ appeared 'defenseless', 'meek'­ 'frightened' 'threatened.' Would they­ view a Black woman in quite the same terms under the­ circumstances? This is the only 'race' issue I­ see, though as I stated, it's subservient to the­ core issue of fault and reprisal.

What else do all these people chastening Serena want­ from her,that she shold crawl before them on her­ knees!!!She 's apologised over and over again.Or do­ they want her to wear sackcloth as evidence of­ repentance.To some people,there is noting the Williams­ sisters can do right.The timing of the call was most­ inauspicious as it cost her a game she believed she had­ a chance of winnimg,and the match.She has suffered­ enough over the matter. It is time to move on as the­ young lady has done1111

It is so strange the way people make comments after­ reading, so what some of you here are annoyed is that­ after she lost the chance to Win the US open singles­ she would have been frustrated and let what has­ happened bring down how spirit there by allowing her to­ lost the doubles, some of you here should really be­ ashamed of yourself for thinking like that no wonder­ those of you thinking like that are non acheivers, you­ expected her to resign from the game of Tennis and when­ she did not but went ahead and won the doubles you all­ went MAD hahahaha, what a world we are living in,­ WICKED PEOPLE, you people should stop looking at her­ game because while she will continue to succeed you­ will all be failures

Danggg...its been weeks ago and people are still­ talking... I agree Serena went overboard. She was wrong­ for going off. However I feel it was a long time­ coming. The tennis establishment has never accept the­ sisters. They only praise them when the win(not to­ often) lol, and kick them badly when they are down.­ Other players male and female have done more horrible­ things to ump, refs etc and never received all this­ attention. Serena makes a mistake and it's world­ headlines. I don't think she should apologize for­ the fact that everyone wants. I think she should­ because she lost her cool and disrespect someone;­ something we all have done in our lives and NOBODY is­ perfect. Before judging others take a goodlook at your­ self you will see that you are no different then the­ ones you judge!

21 and 22 It is not simply the f word it is the phrase­ that went with it, the violence of ramming the ball­ down her throat and the physical intimidation by a­ woman who was of much greater stature than the­ linesperson. I am tired of this race issue, this has­ NOTHING to do with the race of either the player or the­ linesperson, if the game allows players to intimidate­ the linesperson where will the fairplay be then. If one­ human being does not respect another where do we go­ from here. Surely you see enough racism posted on this­ site to last you a lifetime. Sharapova may swear, they­ all may swear but they do not physically intimidate the­ umpire or linesperson by raging at them with their­ racquet. Accept she behaved badly and move on, she­ surely has and hopefully will not repeat her actions.

For the record, Sharapova, Marat, Federer and countless­ others have dropped the f-bomb at linespeople and even­ worse, at the umpire. It's not just Mcenroe.

And as far as the race issue is concerned, if there is­ even one, I just don't believe there would have­ been this level of uproar and fear for the survivsl of­ civilization, had the lineswoman been Black. The­ majority would have forgotten the rant faster than­ Serena did. But as the lineswoman was Asian, many­ empathized with her, easily putting themselves in her­ shoes, and thus suffer along with her as they cry out­ for reprisal.