When it’s a question of millimeters, the advantage is vanishingly small. The proper penalty for such a minuscule error should be a replay of serve. That way, it would be slightly annoying for the person committing the error, but wouldn’t decide the point.
Yeah, sorry, I clarified my position on edit.
EDIT: I wouldn’t mind using let rules for foot faults. If it lands in, call it a let and get on with our lives. Did the foot fault serve land in?
Wow, its about time the threatening the the ref shit got called. With audio proof. Unfortunately it’s only women tennis but that is a sport with lots of money. Maybe it will set a precedent where people on the field get called for the shit what would send any of the rest of us to jail.
Yeah it did, and Clijsters hit a normal, somewhat short return IIRC.
But yeah, using let rules just makes so much more sense for a pre-interaction error. Maybe this will get them to consider it, seeing as how Serena seems to draw foot faults more than most, and who knows if it’ll happen again at a crucial juncture, sullying yet another important match.
Also, why aren’t foot faults subject to instant replay review? Every other point-deciding thing is.
I think it’s somewhat accepted in sports at most levels for there to be abuse of referees/umpires, if you keep it verbal and on the field. Even in high school, I’ve seen parents hurl really nasty and sometimes threatening comments at umpires, and it seems tolerated, though looked down on. I guess we as a society deem it OK for testosterone activities to be accompanied by loud macho posturing, as long as it doesn’t translate to actual physical violence.
Yes. Break a racquet or curse out loud and you’ll get a warning, then a violation, then start losing points. Mutter to yourself or just spike the racquet and you are usually ok.
Figures they would resume play while we were out at the movies. I’m a little surprised Clijsters won and very surprised about how it happened. Serena’s gone over the edge with this stuff lately. The staredown with the linesman in the second or third round was kind of amusing, but not really kosher. Screaming at a linesperson that way is just unacceptable. I’d like to see the serve that was called a fault, but that’s not really the issue. I’m disappointed Serena went that far.
Sorry for the triple post, but I just want to make it clear that while I respect her game, I don’t like Serena, I think she’s a brat who is as far from humble and gracious as you can be, and I was rooting for Kim all the way and glad she won. I just think the penalty for foot faults is bullshit.
ESPN showed one replay, and the foot fault call appears borderline. You never want to see a borderline call set up match point. Serena was obviously unhappy with her play and she freaked out. The reaction is totally unacceptable, and it’s not even close. People get penalized for much, much less than that. Connors and McEnroe ran their mouths a lot but I’m not aware of them ever threatening a linesperson, even when they called them a lot of nasty names and made asses of themselves. Serena was dead fucking wrong, as a fan I’m upset that she went off that way. It’s bad for her and bad for tennis.
As for foot faults… it’s true you don’t see them called a whole lot, but every sport has boundaries. It’s not that hard to avoid a foot fault. You keep your foot behind the big white line on the court.
Be careful with your broad brush.
If an NFL player spoke to a ref exactly as Serena did, not only would he be ejected from the game on the spot, he’d almost certainly also get a hefty fine (I’d guess up to $100k) and a lengthy suspension. I wouldn’t be shocked to see a season-long suspension. Hell, if an NFL player did exactly what Serena did, I wouldn’t be completely stunned if he got banned from the sport for life. Players do NOT get to threaten refs, period.
It doesn’t get much more testosterone filled than the NFL. On a side note, is it kosher to attribute Serena’s actons to PMS? If it’s okay to attribute negative behavior to testosterone, then it’s okay to attribute negative behavior to other hormones, right?
Yeah, Connors and McEnroe were assholes, but Serena was (is) a raging asshole. This is even worse than Hingis’ tantrum against Steffi Graf, where she crossed the net and delayed the game forever to make her point.
As a fan, I hate that such a trivial offense can cost players points, and the players probably don’t like them much either. Having them re-serve the point is an appropriate penalty for an error that gives a microscopic (if any) advantage and takes place before the other player is even involved.
As long as you use let rules, I’m in. An automatic do-over is too easily abused in the form of getting a few “practice serves” in whenever you start to struggle with your serves during a match.
I don’t remember seeing Serena be this bad with officials before this tournament. Giving her opponents no credit in defeat is nothing new.
Players don’t like any penalty. Getting closer on a serve does give you an advantage and there’s no reason to change the rule here.
Second year running.
Yeah, I’m generalizing, but it seems true to me that we tend to allow more on a sports field than we do in other social situations. You’re right that outright threats by players/coaches usually gets a harsh response, but insults (to a point) are tolerated in many arenas.
As for testosterone, it’s a fun word. Testosterone. It’s even fun to type! Testosterone. PMS. Adrenaline. Estrogen. Menopause. See, testosterone wins the award for one-word encapsulation of raging hormones. And women have it, too! I wish estrogen were called vagivavone.
I agree that the rule can stand, just change the penalty to a redo of serve. As a fan, I hate foot faults deciding points.
I could go either way, but it’s not quite the same as a serve hitting the tape and going in, which is a let. When the player steps over the line, it’s an error on the player’s part. But I do hate seeing foot faults because they happen so rarely, so it always seems like they are being called out of nowhere.
For awhile weren’t they using some kind of electronic eye to catch the foot faults? Cyclops? Why’d they stop that, now that they’ve got electronic stuff for everything else?
By the way, I think Clijsters would have won anyway. It would have been fun to see a third set of that level of tennis, though. (Except my guys were panting for it to be over so they could watch the baseball game.)
Also, once the match was decided, couldn’t they have switched to the other women’s match? We could have seen the last few points, at least, instead of rehashing and replaying Serena’s bad moment.
Edited to respond to Marley: Back when they used Cyclops, foot faults were pretty frequent for awhile. Then, it seemed, the players learned to step back.
I’m pretty sure Cyclops was used for judging serves, not foot faults.
I can see already, in part from ESPN’s commentary, that this is going to overshadow the whole goddamn tournament, which is just infuriating. They didn’t show another highlight from the match and didn’t show a single stroke from the other semifinal. They showed a few seconds of Nadal-Gonzalez - and by the way, props to Gonzo for a disappearing act that would make Criss Angel jealous - but lead with Serena, of course.
Yeah I wish some channel was showing at least some part of the Wickmayer - Wozniacki match. This is a bloody semi-final for chrissakes! I don’t think I’ve seen a single Wickmayer game in the entire tournament, and I’ve been watching a lot of it!
What do you think the odds are Wozniacki takes the final? I’d be willing to bet $50 to win $10 that Clijsters takes it.
I’ve been watching quite a lot also and I haven’t seen a Wickmayer game either, that I can recall.
I’m sure ESPN360 or usopen.org probably had her matches, but my computer can’t seem to connect to any live streams. Nevermind that my video card probably couldn’t handle a live match either.