Federer Uses Profanity In Dispute At Open Final

AP Report ^ | September 14, 2009

[Steelfish]

Federer Uses Profanity In Dispute At Open Final

Mon Sep 14

NEW YORK – Serena Williams isn't the only Grand Slam champion using profanity at the U.S. Open: Roger Federer let an expletive fly, too. In an uncharacteristic display, Federer argued with chair umpire Jake Garner during a changeover in the U.S. Open final Monday. He said his opponent, Juan Martin del Potro, was given too much time to challenge a line call.

"I wasn't allowed to challenge after 2 seconds. The guy takes, like, 10," Federer said.

Then the 15-time major champion used a profanity in addressing Garner: "Don't tell me to be quiet, OK? When I want to talk, I talk. I don't give a ... what he said."

CBS microphones picked up the exchange during its live broadcast of the match.

[berdie]

I’m pretty sick of most of our professional athletes.

[Saije]

And Federer’s always seemed like a fairly classy guy. When athletes act like this, I like it when they lose. Even though losing is still a pretty good payday.

[pnh102]

Was he sanctioned per the rules of the game?

[Steelfish]

No

[MCH]

And while we’re trashing foul mouthed and ill tempered professional tennis players, let’s not forget the original ground-breaking jerk John McEnroe.

[Rembrandt]

You have to wonder why these idiots are using relativism to deal with this issue. Then you must consider how much the left stream media has invested itself in blacks in general and especially famous black athletes like S. Williams. This is really a disgusting play by the media to try and brush SW’s dirt under the media’s carpet. Shameless on their part and shameless on the part of the Williams family for not speaking up.

[Wuli]

“Was he sanctioned per the rules of the game?”

I do not know exactly what the U.S. Open rulebook says;

however, in comparing the issue of Federer with the issue with Serena Williams on Saturday, there seemed to be the following differences;

there did not seem to be two official warnings, official assessments of a violation made against Federer; there may have been one;

but there were two assessed against Williams

one early in the match when she slammed her racket down in anger, breaking it

and the second one was actually at the end of the match,

and the line judge did not leave her post and approach the lead official, about the matter, until requested to by that official, which was only after the initial encounter had ended, and after Serena then went back a second time to continue her angry words with the line judge.

and, the second assessment against Williams seemed, at the time, to involve more than simple anger and profanity but appeared to include some sort of implied threat to the line judge.

In sum, although the initial image of the events may appear the same in both cases, I think the details and total context were not.

What was disappointing to all was that the game point assessed against Serena gave a Pyrrhic match victory to her opponent, even though her opponent had been out-performing Serena in most of the match.

[bobby.223]

nope, not Johnny Mac, Ille nastase. the ATP ranked number one just prior to Jimmy. he was the first horror show.

[Lancey Howard]

Yep, you nailed it.
“See? White athletes curse at tennis judges, too!”

[retrocon]

I think the semis were Aserene’s to lose. She beat herself, as they say in tennis. She was angry for most of the match, and outwardly angry players usually do not win, because that anger is not being channeled correctly. Her opponent did go on to win the championship, which says to me that that wasn’t a fluke.

[Wuli]

“Her opponent did go on to win the championship, which says to me that that wasn’t a fluke.”

I didn’t think her win over Serena was a fluke either; but, nonetheless, she herself visibly showed at the time that it was not the way she wished to see her match with Serena end.

No matter how close she was and how much better she had been consistently playing against Serena, small as it was, there was always a chance Serena would at last rise to the occasion. That little bit of “what if” doubt cannot be erased, even in the winners mind.

And yes, I agree, Serena “beat” herself by her own performance but part of that was also because her opponent was not succumbing to Serena’s game-plan-style as so many of Serena’s competitors do more often, which contributed to the psychology that threw Serena off her game.

Her opponent was responding better than anticipated to Serena’s more powerful first serve (when it did not fault), as well as a still powerful second serve and doing so with return-placements that saw many volleys where Serena’s opponent stayed closer to center more often than Serena. It was not long before the more frustrated player was Serena even when the sets ran close in the end.

Serena was angry at herself and in the end took it out on an official, and lost because of it.

[nonsporting]

More moral equivalency blather. (I must have missed where Federer threatened the official.)

[Osage Orange]

Johnny Mac.....was a choir-boy and never cussed or swore.

Honest....