You cannot be serious

Apparently "I'm going to ram this ****ing ball down your throat!" is the new "You cannot be serious!"

I'll be honest, I first read about the end to Serena's match online and my first thought was, "How on earth could the officials have essentially defaulted Serena in a major semifinal?!? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" I couldn't even put into words what she would have had to do for the response to not have been a travesty.

Then I saw the highlight...and that was exactly the scenario I had been trying to put into words. She embarassed the poop out of herself with her tirade against the line judge. Was it a foot fault? I don't know, it was pretty darn close. Maybe the official was sure, and if so, she was absolutely right to make the call. There's a difference between allowing more physical play at a game's climax and simply tossing out the rulebook.

She lost the match, was fined, and I think that's the end of it. Which is fine.

One other thing bothered me. Could the head official have attempted to head this off? In this instance, with Serena being replaced by Beezelbub, quite possibly not. But I couldn't help but think, part of an official's job is to maintain control of the match. Never should an official's first move/response be to toss a player. Even if it's just a "Serena" to try and snap the player out of it, there has to be some attempt to resolve the conflict without tossing the player/ending the match. Again, I'm not saying Serena could have been reasoned with (even when she hasn't gone insane she doesn't seem like a reasonable person), but some sort of attempt should have been made.