Thursday, September 22, 2011

Serena is fined $2,000. What is the Price of Repeated Bad Court-side Behavior?

Gone are the days when the bad boy of 1980's tennis John Mcenroe could verbally harass court umpires with his tirade and avalanche of harsh words--and not be fined and punished.

Times have changed because the rules have changed. Rules have changed because the fans expect the etiquette of traditional tennis to be honored.

Each Grand Slam tournament sets its own standards and rules. White is still the required court wear at Wimbledon while the USTA allows multicolored tennis garb.

But would the All England Tennis Club allow such verbal abuse to be answered with a slap on Serena's wrist? (She earned $1.4 Million and was fined just $2,000)

My guess is probably not! She might even be banned from future Wimbledon competition.

Evidently, the USTA committee did not feel that Serena's conduct was serious--"did not rise to the level of a major offense under the Grand Slam Code of Conduct."

What do you think?

No comments: