Oh, there's nothing like late night at the Open. It's one of the most exciting midnight sporting events in the world. The crowds never fail to cheer, often switching allegiance mid-match in the hopes of more tennis to come, but also never failing to reward good play, or holler their displeasure at poor performances, be it from the players, or officials.
Perhaps there's something about the clocking winding its way to a new day, but the late night crowds are rarely disappointed with controversy. Many former champions, Nastase, Lendl, Courier, Sampras, Capriati, Hewitt, and even Serena Williams herself, have all had match-changing linecalls leading to full-blown arguments with the linespeople and tonight proved to be one of those occassions.
After waiting some eight hours for the women's semi-final to begin, Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters treated the New York fans to a little over an hour of tennis. Clijsters, having dominated Williams for most of the first set, had pushed Serena's to 15-30, 5-6 in the second when Serena double-faulted on a line call. Standing at the baseline, now at 15-40, Serena began vigourously yelling at the lineswoman and shaking her racket at her. Called by the chair umpire to report what happened, the lineswoman repeated the abuse given her by Serena, and the umpire gave Serena another code violation, ending the match. Everyone in the stadium was incensed and Clijsters, informed by Serena what had happened, attempted to protest, but to no avail.
Despite her outburst, Serena Williams exhibited a great degree of class after defaulting from the match, shaking Kim's hand and explaining to her what had happened. Obviously upset as she left, she appeared at the post-match press conference calm and composed.
Serena now has the dubious distinction of having two of the most notorius linecalls go against her at the US Open. The first was against Capriati, and the miscall cost Serena the point, but was so clearly wrong that it led to the introduction of the player challenges in subsequent years.
These things never seem to happen at Wimbledon or Roland Garros. The Australian Open has its own issues with violent and rowdy fans, but there's nothing like the Open. Maybe it's that the US Open, along with the Australian Open, are the only ones to schedule night matches, and the officials are tired. Maybe the media presence in New York, or the extremely emotive crowds make the players edgy. As often as we see these startling linecalls, we more often see players rising to the occasion with fantastic plays, feeding off of and interacting with the crowd. So maybe it's a mixture of all these things, some unique combustible combination of officials, crowds, cameras, and players.
There's nothing like late night at the Open.
