ET Tour News primarily focuses on the men’s tour, but as there was little action except the conclusion of the Nadal-Gonzalez match, and due to the anticipation of the match between Serena Williams and unseeded Kim Clijsters, we’ll take the detour to discuss this match.
Although the men’s quarterfinals got finished, rain began to fall again on Saturday. Weather maps showed the northeast fairly clear of rain, but it’s like that small raincloud that keeps following a loser, there were rainclouds that seem focused over the general vicinity of the US Open.
The first women’s semifinal was scheduled for 4 PM. The second for 8 PM. By 9 PM, neither match had been played, but shortly after, both matches were started.
There were a few drops at the start of this match, but the officials decided to let the match continue even though a match in the adjacent court with Wickmayer and Wozniacki had been delayed.
As with many women’s matches, there were plenty of breaks of serve. Serena, for her part, did not look particularly sharp, making an uncharacteristic number of errors. Clijsters was playing pretty well, able to move the ball around, especially on her improved forehand. Top women pros lacking the strength to hit topspin with power, generally skim much closer to the net. If your timing is just a bit off, you end up hitting the net.
At a break point (and set point) in the first set, Serena netted a ball early in the rally. This error so disgusted Serena that she bounced the racquet, then proceeded to smash it. This is important because Serena is given a warning for racquet abuse.
In the second set, breaks were again traded. Down 3-4, Serena was trying to hold serve. Despite many opportunities to break, Serena managed to serve her way out of a mess and tie it up at 4-all. Clijsters held rather easily to 5-4, and although Clijsters got an early point, Serena held to 5-all fairly comfortably. Clijsters again held easily to 6-5. She started with a strong game getting a 15-30 lead on Serena’s serve.
Serena faulted on the first serve. Then, in the second serve, Serena got called for a foot fault. This lead to 15-40, double match point. Serena was really irritated that a lineswoman would call her on foot-fault to match point. She began to berate the woman. Word was that she said she would shove a racquet down the woman’s throat.
The chair umpire asked the lineswoman to approach the chair and explain what she had heard. Word was that she claimed Serena was intending to kill her. It’s possible the lineswoman’s English may not have been that good. This prompted Serena to come to the chair as the tournament referee, Brian Earley, was brought out. Having decided that Serena had been unsportsmanlike, she was penalizes a point penalty. Since the score was 15-40, she lost the match.
This wasn’t clear right away, as it seemed like Serena had sour grapes and wasn’t going to play anymore because they didn’t reverse the call. Serena walked over to Clijsters, shook her hand. Clijsters meanwhile looked stunned, and hung around at least 5 more minutes while certain things were explained to her. It did seem like Clijsters would have won, but Serena is so competitive, you never know.
This semifinal was perceived as the final because the other semis involved Yanina Wickmayer (who?) and Caroline Wozniacki. Wickmayer is also Belgian. Few would have expected two Belgians in the semifinals of a Slam and one of them not being Justine Henin. As it was, Wozniacki won the match by the comfortable score of 6-3, 6-3.
Tomorrow, the men’s semifinals are played as well as the women’s final. Nadal and del Potro play the early match at noon. Federer and Djokovic plays the late match at 4:30. The women’s final is played after that. This makes the women’s final a bit more unpredictable since it will depend on how long it takes for Federer and Djokovic to finish their match.
The men’s final will be played at the unfortunate time of 4 PM, probably because Monday night is Monday Night Football and the US Open doesn’t seem prepared to run a later time that would make it more friendly to people watching at home.
Hopefully the rainy weather is done, and we can get back to tennis.
