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.”
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