No Love In This Match Poem by Joe Rosochacki

Serena, Serena, how can you do such a thing?
After a long day of rain delay,
-the US Open finally had the women semi-finals,
from the top and bottom draw,
-both would play.
On the ‘lesser court’ were Caroline Wozniacki and Yanina Wickmayer,
-on the main stage was occupied by Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters.
The Wozniacki-Wickmeyer match was not on hand for a television viewer.
But back to the Clijsters-Willams match;
The hitting was impeccable, not withstanding unforced errors and double faults.
What would happen to end the match between Williams/Clijsters would be full of ire.
Clijsters was outplaying the ex-Champion,
Clijsters, back from taking two years off for motherhood, was a formidable opponent,
--and still is very strong.
After a tense first set which Clijsters won,
There was tension not seen before with Serena,
-a broken racquet, something was very wrong.
What would be one of many bad results;
Serena was a given a code violation of racquet abuse.
I never saw this action for a seasoned professional such as Steffi, Chris and Martina.
Did Serena know what was in store for so much dubious fame?
And lo and behold, in the very next set,
Clijsters was winning, she was about to break Serena’s service game,
Clijsters was up 15-30, the score in the set was 6-5 in favor of Clijsters
Serena was serving and that’s not all of it yet.
Serena was called for a foot fault on her second serve.
The nerve!
Clisters was 15-40 with games in her favor,
Serena wouldn’t let the line judge forget.
Serena racked her with a couple of profanities,
- and said that she would shove a tennis ball down her throat;
Which would cause the line judge to be dead.
Here's an AP article that purports to give an exact quote:
'If I could, I would take this -- ball and shove it down your -- throat and kill you, ' Williams said.
After the referee called to meet the line judge,
-the line judge stated what Serena said to her,
That was the beginning of the end.
Serena went back and told the line judge some more.
She might’ve known what would be in store.
On the US Open circuit you are given a code violation once,
-but twice lead to leads to loss of a point.
That code violation point resulted in a matchpoint.
Kim beat Serena 7-5 in the second set.
The final two points of the match were decided, by Kim not hitting the ball.
Such a shame for this game.
And that was not all;
In the end, Serena was fined $10,000.00 for ‘unsportsmanlike’ behavior,
Which is a mere pittance in her financial realm.
And, $500.00 for abuse racquet abuse.
I’ll bet you that this will ‘break her’ when it comes to a financial ‘deuce’.
(HA-ha-ha)
And what is worse,
Serena probably carries more than $500.00 in her purse!
Anyway, Kim Clijsters beat Wozniacki to win the US Open Women’s Tournament 2009.
And, the first non-seeded woman in the entire Open era.
Kim is the champ, and it is a certain type of wonder what she had done.
Serena had a meltdown and she’ll be in more Grand Slam events
-and will become one the greatest women players in tennis history in our time.
Unfortunately, these 5 minutes of drama will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Maybe, Serena should have more patience and maturity,
-- she should plan to have a daughter or a son.

9-14-09