“I’m going to get you in the locker room for that” When Serena Williams threatened Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez after accusing her of cheating at the French open
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Maria Jose Sanchez Martinez and Serena Williams
Former World No. 1 Serena Williams is arguably one of the greatest players to have graced the tennis court. With Grand Slam titles across all disciplines that take her total tally to 39 Grand Slam titles (23 singles, 14 doubles and 2 mixed doubles) along with her 4 Olympic Gold medals, the American is always in the conversation whenever tennis greats are discussed for her glorious career which is currently in the 28th season as a Pro.
While Serena has attained tremendous success over her career, she has found herself in controversies time and again where at times she has been the victim while on other occasions she has given a needless extra reaction dragging the matter more than necessary. Her antics have often dented her chances of being named the Greatest ever but nobody can deny that she has been the most dominant and hard-working player in the past 3 decades.
“She better not come to the net again”: Angry Serena Williams to the chair umpire
At the 2009 French Open, one such incident where Serena despite being on the right side found herself on the wrong end for her reaction to the situation. Playing in the third round against Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, with the first set balanced at 2-2 with Serena serving, a dropshot by Sanchez saw Serena hit a powerful backhand which hit the arm of Sanchez who had approached the net. The ball had hit Maria’s hand and crossed the net which initially looked like a clean shot and the chair umpire handed the point to the Spaniard.
Serena, angry with the incident complained to the umpire about the ball not hitting the racket but the umpire did not change the decision and Maria also kept quiet as she went on to break the American’s serve and eventually won the set only to lose the match in 3-sets.
“I’m going to get you in the locker room for that. You don’t know me,” said Serena to Sanchez when the point was awarded against her. She then started talking to the umpire and said, “I felt so bad. I didn’t mean to hit her. I don’t know why you gave her the game. That’s totally not cool. She better not come to the net again.”
Speaking in the press conference later, Serena said, “I’m, like, drama. And I don’t want to be drama. I’m like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, the drama follows them. I don’t want to be that girl. I didn’t ‘think’ the ball touched her – the ball did touch her, 100 percent, on her arm.
“The rules of tennis are when the ball hits your body, then it’s out of play. You lose a point automatically. So the ball hit her body, and therefore, she should have lost the point – instead of cheating. I hit that ball rather hard. She knew that ball hit her. It was like, ‘No way.’ I would never do that. I’ve never done that. I’ve never sunk low,” said Williams in the press conference still angry over how things unfolded.
Sanchez, however, had a mild reaction to Serena’s claims and she called them simply ‘stupid’ and added, “This is tennis and sometimes it happens. We see each other every week, we have to have a good relationship.”
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)