Serena Henins the Joy Out of Cllijsters' Epic Win

Kim Clijsters played the match of her life Saturday night defeating Serena Williams in straight sets to advance to the final of the U.S. Open. But not before having the win tainted with a penalty on match point thanks to a display by Serena that was more fitting of an episode of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" than a Grand Slam semifinal. CBS was too lame to explain exactly what happened, but you could see Serena repeatedly using the f-bomb while screaming and pointing at the lineswoman who had called a foot fault on her to set up double match point, and Serena -- after completely getting away with one big tirade -- going back for seconds. (Her body language was also becoming increasingly threatening complete with jabbing finger.)

Mary Carillo finally paraphrased that the defending champ had threatened to shove a ball down the lineswoman's throat, which however figuratively it was said was enough to cost her a point since she had already gotten a warning for smashing her racket after losing the first set. For all of her on-court antics, Serena then turned into Princess Grace in the post-match press conference, a clear indication to me that she knows she was way out of line. I'm still in shock by the whole thing although given the fact that Serena has been staring down linesmen all week and had threatened Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez to her face during their third-round match at the French I guess I shouldn't be. (“I’m going to get you in the locker room for that; you don’t know me," she warned Martinez Sanchez before telling the chair umpire, “She better not come to the net again”; was she ever disciplined for this at all?) I was the first one to defend Serena when Henin played dumb about that let at the French or when linesmen repeatedly screwed her over against Capriati at the U.S. Open. And by all accounts this was a horrendously bad call. But I don't care who you are or how upset you get, you can't go around threatening people like this. A sad day for American tennis. (WHAT a role model.) Congrats to Kim, who showed what a champion is really made of.

UPDATE: The AP is reporting the full quote was "If I could, I would take this fucking ball and shove it down your fucking throat and kill you." I have to say I'm doubly disappointed in Serena because when I first saw the incident, she seemed to be genuine in her denial that she hadn't threatened to kill anyone, but admitted to the officials that she had said what else she'd been accused of. (Fair enough, you're furious but you're owning up to what you did.) Then in the press conference she said it turned out the lineswoman never accused her of threatening to kill her, it was just a misunderstanding or a language barrier type of thing, Now we know this is all a lie as dozens of people heard what she really said.