Belgian mother and comeback queen Kim Clijsters knocked out Serena Williams in a wildly controversial finish on Saturday to advance to the finals of the US Open and become the poster girl for working mothers.
Just weeks after returning to the tour from a two-year break to start a family, Clijsters beat the defending champion 6-4, 7-5 after a day-long rain delay at Flushing Meadows.
At 5-6, 15-30 down in the second set, Williams whacked her second serve, but the line judge called her on a foot-fault for a double fault that put her at match point.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The American’s subsequent tirade against the line judge resulted in a point penalty — and the end of the match.
“All year I’ve never been foot faulted and then suddenly in this tournament they keep calling foot faults,” Williams said. “I said something that I guess they gave me a point penalty for. Unfortunately, it was on match point.”
In the final, Clijsters will face Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki, who defeated unseeded and error-prone Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Earlier on Saturday, men’s third seed Rafael Nadal needed just 34 minutes to complete a rain-delayed 7-6, 7-6, 6-0 victory over Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez and gain a spot in the semi-finals.
Nadal will face sixth seed Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, one of the hottest players on the tour this summer.
“He’s a very complete player,” Nadal said of Del Potro. “In the past, he didn’t serve like he is doing right now. He has an unbelievable serve right now. From the baseline, he is very solid. He doesn’t make mistakes.”
In the other men’s semi-final, five-times champion Roger Federer faces fourth-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic, both players well-rested after having three days off.
The contentious ending of Clijsters’ match marred her well-earned victory.
“It’s unfortunate that a match that I was playing so well at had to end that way,” said Clijsters, the 2005 Open champion and former world No. 1. “Obviously, I still to this point am a little confused about what happened out there, just because I was so focused. I was trying to win that last point. Things ended a little bit different than I expected.”
Clijsters became the first mother to reach a Grand Slam final since Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon in 1980.
Exactly what Williams said to the line judge was not revealed publicly, though at one point during the dispute at the umpire’s chair she was heard telling the line judge: “I never said I would kill you, are you serious?”
Williams, the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, said she did not believe the line judge “understood it was a point penalty, which meant that I lost that point, which meant that I lost the match.”
“Obviously, I wanted to fight,” she said. “I always fight when I’m down and keep going. I planned on hitting a couple of aces, but I guess it didn’t work out.”
In a match delayed more than seven hours because of wet conditions, unseeded Wickmayer made 40 unforced errors against just 14 for Wozniacki.
“I’m in the US Open final, I cannot describe it with words,” Wozniacki said.
Nadal resumed his quarter-final leading 7-6, 6-6 with Gonzalez serving at 2-3. The Spaniard won the first four points to clinch the second set and Gonzalez unraveled.
The Chilean committed more unforced errors in the third set (21) than Nadal had in the entire match (13).
“I get afraid maybe in the tie-breaker,” Gonzalez said. “I went for it. I did a good play, miss one. The next play I miss another one, then I miss another one. What else can I do? I try my best.”
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS