Serena Williams lost her U.S. Open semifinal match on Saturday after being penalized for a vicious tirade directed at a line judge after being called for a foot fault. Williams wasn’t playing terribly well, and had already been penalized once in the first set for throwing her racket. The venom she spewed at the line judge went far over the line, though, including threats of physical violence. Her behavior really jumps out as bizarre because tennis generally seems to be a pretty civilized sport.

Serena Williams has been a great tennis champion for a number of years. I have long admired the combination of power and finesse that she brings to the game. When she and her sister Venus first appeared on the scene in 1998/1999, I thought that Venus would be the one to dominate the game. But as good as Venus has been, Serena has been better. She has won 14 Grand Slam titles, and has been quite dominant at times, particularly in the early part of her career. She experienced some controversy in her career previous to this, but it usually had to do with the outrageous outfits she was known to wear during matches.

Most people will probably not blink at the events that closed this match. Sports seems to involve this kind of behavior quite often now, unfortunately. It seems like it is far more unusual to find an athlete who is well-behaved, humble, and appreciative of his lot in life than it is to find a boorish, self-congratulating jerk. To a certain degree, the huge sums of money paid to these athletes makes that situation rather inevitable. Still, it would be nice to think that this kind of behavior is an aberration rather than the norm.

The aftermath of this will say a lot about how Serena Williams wants to be remembered. I hope she makes the right choices.

Bad sports, continued:

2) I don’t know that this column is enough to qualify me as a real sports columnist. Even if it does, my experience in this realm is very limited. Even so, I am pretty sure I know better than to go where Mark Whicker went in his column directed at kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard.

3) Gee, Michael Jordan. Don’t you think it’s time to give up some of that bitterness? Even his induction to the NBA Hall of Fame became a chance for him to show that as great as he was, he never really got it.

Good sports:

1) It wasn’t all bad at the U.S. Open this week. Melanie Oudin, an unseeded American teenager ranked 70th in the world, beat three highly ranked players, including Maria Sharapova, until she was finally beaten by Caroline Wozniacki, seeded ninth. It was a great run and a great story.

2) OK, this may be on the snarky side of “good sports,” but I need to include Notre Dame’s loss to Michigan in this side of the column. I am not a Michigan fan in any way at all, mind you. I greatly dislike their coach, Rich Rodriguez, whom I think is an embarassment to the great tradition that Michigan football has. Not because of losing…but because of his general sliminess (this is an opinion column, okay?). This week, though, he was matched up against the only college football coach that I like even less than I like him:  Charlie Weis. I have never seen a more arrogant, self-serving coach in my life. Even better, he has continually proven, over his 4+ years as the head man at Notre Dame, that his arrogance is completely misplaced, shown by his continuing ability to lose to inferior teams. I am torn between hoping he gets thrown out on his backside as soon as possible and hoping that Notre Dame keeps him there for a long time, ensuring that they will not be any kind of threat to ever actually win something.

3) The poor Cincinnati Bengals. They really can’t catch a break. They scored a touchdown with 38 seconds left in their game against the Denver Broncos to take a 7-6 lead. Two plays later, Kyle Orton, trying desperately to make something happen, threw a pass intended for Brandon Marshall. It was tipped in the air by a defender, and came down in the hands of Denver receiver Brandon Stokley, who ran 87 yards for the winning touchdown. This could only happen to the Bengals.

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02

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