She sneaked on to Rod Laver Arena without anyone noticing. Shino Tsurubuchi was officiating on the baseline at the Australian Open yesterday, but not for Serena Williams’ semi-final victory over Li Na of China; they kept her back for Andy Murray’s match, in which there was not a foot fault called.
Had the administrators of tennis been stronger — which is a bit like the FA asking Sir Alex Ferguson to accept refereeing decisions with good grace — Ms Tsurubuchi would have been placed in the line of fire a little earlier in the day. After all, the meeting of Serena and her official bête noire will have to come around sooner or later — just as it was inevitable that Williams would play Justine Henin tomorrow in the final of the Australian Open women’s singles. The moment that Kim Clijsters departed the scene, this was the match that had to be.
Of course, if some folk had had their way, Williams would not have played in this championship at all, yet a fine of $175,000 (about £109,000) and a two-year good behaviour bond was declared to be punishment enough for her horrible outburst at Tsurubuchi during the semi-final of last year’s US Open against Clijsters when she was foot-faulted and then defaulted.
Instead, here she is, tearing into the opposition with renewed vigour. It took Williams a while to wear down the admirable resistance of Li, the American No 1 seed winning in two tie-breaks before acceding that for her to have reached this final was “shocking”. To her perhaps; not to us.
The more dressing that is applied to her person, the more freely Serena appears to play. Yet her performance seemed nothing special yesterday compared with that of Henin, who faced a second Chinese woman, Zheng Jie.
Henin, who dropped one game, played almost flawlessly, winning 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes, and was happy to describe her performance afterwards as “perfection”. Nothing in the woman’s event has so far touched it for sheer composure, or the sustained level of shot-making and versatility. It is quite wonderful to have her back, and difficult to believe that this is just her second competitive tournament since she returned to the game after a 20-month retirement.
Source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7007036.ece
Had the administrators of tennis been stronger — which is a bit like the FA asking Sir Alex Ferguson to accept refereeing decisions with good grace — Ms Tsurubuchi would have been placed in the line of fire a little earlier in the day. After all, the meeting of Serena and her official bête noire will have to come around sooner or later — just as it was inevitable that Williams would play Justine Henin tomorrow in the final of the Australian Open women’s singles. The moment that Kim Clijsters departed the scene, this was the match that had to be.
Of course, if some folk had had their way, Williams would not have played in this championship at all, yet a fine of $175,000 (about £109,000) and a two-year good behaviour bond was declared to be punishment enough for her horrible outburst at Tsurubuchi during the semi-final of last year’s US Open against Clijsters when she was foot-faulted and then defaulted.
Instead, here she is, tearing into the opposition with renewed vigour. It took Williams a while to wear down the admirable resistance of Li, the American No 1 seed winning in two tie-breaks before acceding that for her to have reached this final was “shocking”. To her perhaps; not to us.
The more dressing that is applied to her person, the more freely Serena appears to play. Yet her performance seemed nothing special yesterday compared with that of Henin, who faced a second Chinese woman, Zheng Jie.
Henin, who dropped one game, played almost flawlessly, winning 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes, and was happy to describe her performance afterwards as “perfection”. Nothing in the woman’s event has so far touched it for sheer composure, or the sustained level of shot-making and versatility. It is quite wonderful to have her back, and difficult to believe that this is just her second competitive tournament since she returned to the game after a 20-month retirement.
Source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7007036.ece
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