US Open Day 13: Serena's Foot (and Mouth) Fault Ends Match

One of the most bizarre days of tennis I can remember.  I'll have more on the ending of Serena-Clijsters a bit later, but for now a more tennis-focused recap of the day's matches:

Women's Semifinals:

Kim Clijsters BEL def. Serena Williams USA (2) 6-4, 7-5 -- For as much as the ending of this match will be discussed for years, the rest of it should go down as an all-time classic.  Both Williams and Clijsters played clean, aggressive tennis, running down ball after ball and wrestling for control of the match.  Clijsters surprisingly outserved Serena, though, often holding serve with ease for most of the first set.  In the five games in the first set in which Clijsters held serve, Serena won only three points, total. By the end of the match, Serena had served eleven more points on her serve than had Clijsters, a sign of how Clijsters forced Serena to work for her service holds much harder than Serena forced Clijsters to.  The two were much more even in the second, with neither showing any visible signs of nerves as a tiebreak seemed inevitable.

But then while she was serving to stay in the match at 5-6, 15-30, Williams was called for a foot fault on a second serve, and all hell broke loose.  Serena accosted the base line judge who made the call, pouring on a sauce of threatening profanity thicker than anything I have ever heard from Serena, and maybe from any tennis player, period. The point penalty Williams received for her tirade came at match point, giving Clijsters the match.  Clijsters outplayed Serena and deserved the match, but the way it ended was beyond bizarre.

Caroline Wozniacki DEN (9) def. Yanina Wickmayer BEL 6-3, 6-3 --Obviously I didn't see any of this match, because CBS didn't air a single point of it.  And it wasn't to be found on any other medium, either.  Maybe it was aired in Denmark, but I can't imagine it saw the light of day elsewhere. 

Having not seen it, here is what can be divined from the statistics: Caroline Wozniacki was the mentally tougher player, coming from behind in each set to win it.  She played the same basic pushing style she did in her previous matches in this tournament, hitting only eight winners the entire match.  Congratulations to Wozniacki for winning the six matches required of her to make the final, but her play in this event has been several steps below spectacular.  Wickmayer put up a decent fight, even going up a break at 3-2 in the second set, but she was out of her league.  Wickmayer had perhaps the easiest run to a grand slam semifinal of any unseeded player this decade (Razzano-Peng-Errani-Kvitova-K. Bondarenko), facing only one seed, and the #16 at that.  It's still a run she should be proud of, since none of the other 31 players in her quarter of the draw managed to win the five matches needed to make the semifinal.  But does her play this tournament announce the arrival of a guaranteed future top tenner? No.

Lest we forget, there was some tennis before the rains came as well.  Not any tennis that was competitive or longer than a subway ride from Manhattan to Flushing, but tennis nonetheless. 

Even if she gets thwumped in the final as expected, Stella McCartney must be pretty happy with the timing of her switch to Wozniacki, eh?

Men's Bottom Half Quarterfinal:

Rafael Nadal ESP (3) def. Fernando Gonzalez CHI (11) 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 6-0 -- We waited days for THAT? After a delay of about 36 hours, play finally got back underway in the oft-postponed Rafael Nadal-Fernando Gonzalez quarterfinal.  Unfortunately, tournament organizers forgot to notify Gonzalez of the match's resumption. Gonzalez lost four quick points to lose the second set tiebreak 7-2, then won only twelve points in the third set on the way to getting bageled.  Nadal played well enough, but the story of this continuation is how atrocious Gonzalez was.  I saw Gonzalez pull a similar act in terms of giving up once behind in his semifinal in Washington, so the surrender is hardly a shock.

The way Gonzalez folded works out perfectly for Nadal--he's not tired but he's also not as rusty as Federer or Djokovic, neither of whom have played since Wednesday.  A three-day layoff in a tournament where momentum is paramount can't help much more than it hurts.  Nadal even requested to play the first semifinal on Sunday, so he doesn't appear to be feeling in need of any more rest.