3 Year Suspended Ban for Serena Williams; $82,500 Fine

Eleven time grand slam champion, Serena Williams, was given a suspended 3-year ban, and a record fine of $82,500 for her tantrum at the US Open earlier this year. Called for a foot fault when she was losing, Serena lost her cool and threatened the line judge with an abuse laden speech. According to the line judge, and spectators who heard the tirade, Williams also claimed to kill the line judge if she could. In an alarming event of anger and ferociousness, Serena Williams reportedly said "If I could. I would take this f***ing ball and shove it down your f***ing throat". For this outburst she forfeited a point, giving Kim Clijsters a victory. She was also fined the maximum amount that a player can be fined onsite by the US Tennis Association - $10,000.

However, due to the fact that this was a Grand Slam event, officials were charged to investigate if further punishment was required. Finally, on Monday, Grand Slam administrator Bill Babcock confirmed that there would be further punishment, though not in the form of a one tournament penalty, as many thought would happen.

Babcock confirmed that Serena acted outrageously and violated the 'major offense' rule for aggravated behavior. For that, she was fined 82,500 dollars, and was also given a 3-year suspended ban from Grand Slam events. The 3-year suspended ban means that Serena will have to be on her best behavior till 2011 to avoid incurring the ban. Additionally, her fine will be double to $175,000 if she breaches the 'major offense' rule in any Grand Slam event till 2011.

Williams, who finished the year, ranked as the number one player in women's tennis, was most likely facing a one tournament ban, and had that happened, she would have not been able to defend her Australian Open title in January. However, with the Grand Slam Committee giving her a suspended ban, she will now be playing, and in fact, has already confirmed her entry at the 2010 Australian Open.

Unfortunately for Serena, in spite of her fine and suspended ban, the ITF has no plans to use technology to confirm if players are committing foot faults or no. Saying that it would disrupt the match for too long, the ITF has given the line judge the sole power to call foot faults. This, in spite of technology being used in almost all the other calls, including service points. Also, Hawk Eye, the computer assisted program to review line calls, will not be used for foot faults. While players can challenge other line calls by the line judges, this will not be applicable for foot faults.

With this stance taken by the ITF, Serena Williams will have to be doubly careful, and keep her cool regardless of the calls or the outcome of the match. With 11 titles and more than 28 million dollars in prize money, one certainly hopes that there will be no more outbursts from this immensely talented player, and that she continues her quest for Grand Slam titles.