TENNIS in DEPTH.

Serena Williams held nothing back in a racket-brandishing, expletive-laden tirade at a lineswoman in the women’s singles semi-final last month and the governors of the sport may do likewise with a decision that could have enormous repercussions for the American.

Her penalty is being considered by the ITF, the world governing body, and the world No 2 and winner of 11 grand-slam singles titles has little more than two weeks to give her version of events. The authorities will then decide if what she said and the way she said it merit further action, whether she should be docked the money she earned at Flushing Meadows this year or, most grievous of all, be suspended from one or possibly two grand-slam tournaments.

There is precedent for such a lengthy ban. At Wimbledon in 1995, when Jeff Tarango told Bruno Rebeuh, the French umpire, that he was corrupt, refused to play on and was defaulted from his third-round match against Alexander Mronz, of Germany, (Tarango’s French wife, Benedicte, poured oil on the troubled waters by slapping Rebeuh across the cheek), the American was fined and suspended for two grand-slam tournaments, including the next year’s Wimbledon.

For Williams, against Kim Clijsters, the champion to be, the tipping point came when she was called for a foot fault on a second serve, when trailing 6-4, 6-5, 30-15. Her subsequent rant at the lineswoman who called the fault contained at least four expletives and the threat that Williams would, if she could, “shove this f***ing ball down your f***ing throat and kill you.” As the score had become 40-15, the point penalty awarded against Williams for “an audible obscenity” handed the Belgian her place in the final.

Given that this is deemed a “major offence”, the ITF has received reports from the unnamed lineswoman, Louise Engzell, the umpire, Brian Earley, the tournament referee, and Donna Kelso, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour supervisor. There has been much toing and froing between Williams’s legal team and the international governing body and it now has to be determined whether the player wants to defend herself in person.

Once Bill Babcock, the ITF grand-slam administrator, has heard the evidence — including the full, unexpurgated tape of the tirade — it will be up to him to make a determination on what the punishment should be. That recommendation will go to the four chairmen of the grand-slam events for verification. Williams, 28, would have leave to appeal to an independent tribunal should she not agree with the extent of the punishment.

Neil Harmon  The Times.

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

Tournament spokesman Chris Widmaier says Federer is being docked the same amount as two other players — Vera Zvonareva of Russia and Daniel Koellerer of Austria — for audible obscenity.

 Widmaier says a total of $31,500 (£19,000) in fines is being collected by the tournament, topped by Serena Williams’ $10,000 (£6,000) for unsportsmanlike conduct. She also was fined $500 (£300) for racket abuse.

Daniel Nestor of Canada was docked $5,000 (£3,000) for unsportsmanlike conduct toward a fan.

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Del Potro’s upset and his pleasant demeanor upgraded the men’s tournament, but the two-week Open still belonged to Clijsters, the Belgian player who returned from a two-year hiatus to start a family and marched through assorted Williamses before beating Caroline Wozniacki in the final Sunday night.

Clijsters’s championship will last longer than the unpleasant memory of Serena Williams’s profane bluster at a lineswoman Saturday night. After extremely tepid expressions in the first two days, Williams released another statement Monday, in which she apologized to the lineswoman, Clijsters, the United States Tennis Association and “mostly tennis fans everywhere for my inappropriate outburst.”

She called herself “a woman of great pride, faith and integrity, and I admit when I’m wrong.”

“I need to make it clear to all young people that I handled myself inappropriately and it’s not the way to act — win or lose, good call or bad call in any sport, in any manner,” she said. She added that she hoped to learn and become “a better person as a result.”

On Monday, the Williams sisters beat Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of the United States, 6-2, 6-2, for the doubles championship. Then the sisters gave an obligatory post-match conference, during which Serena revealed to reporters that “most of all I am a very sincere person. I wanted to offer my sincere apologies to anyone that I may have offended.”

Asked about the lineswoman whom she had cursed and offered to force a tennis ball down her throat, Williams laughed and said she would like to give the woman a big hug. There has been no word whether the lineswoman is up for that. Besides, the tournament is over. Everybody can get some rest, particularly Roger Federer, older than he has ever been.

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At Club Independiente, where Del Potro began playing at the age of six, hundreds of people followed his triumph over Swiss world No 1 Roger Federer on a large screen television.

Among them was Del Potro’s childhood coach, Marcelo Gomez, who has trained five other professional men’s players from Tandil.

 ”Juan Martin has just made history in Argentine tennis,” an emotional Gomez said after the victory. “At the age of 20, he beats number one ranked Federer to win the US Open. I don’t think he understands the magnitude of what he’s just accomplished.”

Gomez also coached Mariano Zabaleta, Diego Junqueira, Maximo Gonzalez and Juan Monaco, who all hail from the city of 100,000, located 350-km south of Buenos Aires.

Tandil ground to a halt for four hours as a majority of its residents watched their local hero overcome some early jitters before fighting back to beat five-times US Open champion Federer 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 to lift his first major title.

Once Del Potro had completed the victory, celebrations carried on through the night at Club Independiente.

“I saw Del Potro play as a young boy,” club president Pedro Gomez said among a raucous crowd celebrating the triumph. “I’m enormously happy – to be able to enjoy this victory is amazing.”

Del Potro became the second Argentine to win the US men’s crown, joining compatriot Guillermo Vilas, who won on clay in 1977 and attended the final in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“We have a work method in Tandil,” Marcelo Gomez added. “People here celebrated in the streets as if we had just won the soccer World Cup. For us, for Tandil, it’s unbelievable to have a sportsman like Juan Martin.”

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Juan Martin del Potro brought Roger Federer’s five-year dominance at the US Open to an end at Flushing Meadows to win a grand slam in his first final.

An Argentinian, David Nalbandian, was the last person to beat Federer in New York in the 2003 fourth round – and it was another who broke his subsequent 40-match winning streak.

Guillermo Vilas in 1977, is the only other of del Potro’s countrymen to have won the US Open.

The 20-year-old sixth seed, beaten six times in previous meetings by Federer, denied the world number one a third grand slam of the year with a 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium as the US Open stretched into a 15th day because of heavy rain that all but washed out play on Friday and much of Saturday.

The victory in four hours and six minutes saw Federer prevented from becoming the first man since American Bill Tilden in the 1920s to win the tournament six times in a row, and it was his serve that proved his major failing.

Federer could only manage a 54% first service rate and delivered 11 double-faults as del Potro clocked up 37 forehand winners, while the five-time champion converted only five of 22 break-points.

It also completed a grand slam season in which Federer, 28, had begun the year in tears as he lost the Australian Open final to Rafael Nadal but then won a first French Open title and broke Pete Sampras’ record of all-time grand slam wins at Wimbledon with his 15th career title.

Both men had played wonderfully to win their semi-finals on Sunday, the champion defeating Novak Djokovic and del Potro demolishing Nadal. But this was 20-year-old del Potro’s first grand slam final.

Any nerves the Argentinian might have had were not calmed by Federer’s aggressive start to the match, breaking del Potro in his first service game and looking imperious at 3-0 up.

At 5-2, del Potro saved triple set-point on the way to a gutsy hold, provoking chants of ‘Ole! Ole! Ole!’ from his fans. Those were soon quietened, though, as Federer served himself into a one-set lead with an ace.

Federer remained on top at the start of the second as del Potro handed him his first break of serve with a double-fault before the Argentinian broke back to 5-5 with a wonderful forehand pass down the line – and then took the tie-break to level the match with a powerful forehand winner.

The third set was nip and tuck, del Potro breaking to 4-3 only for Federer to break back in the next game. Federer then went 5-4 up but was annoyed when del Potro was allowed to challenge after a long wait. The challenge failed, but Federer complained to chair umpire Jake Garner that the Argentinian had exceeded the time allowed to make the challenge.

“Don’t you have any rules for this?” Federer asked Garner, whose response took the tension up a notch when he told the player to be quiet.

Federer was incensed and used expletives after saying to Garner: “Don’t tell me to be quiet. If I want to speak I’ll speak.”

The anger was soon turned towards the del Potro serve, and the sixth seed double-faulted to give a set-point up to the Swiss.

To del Potro’s dismay, he served another double-fault to gift the champion the set – and the Argentinian returned to his chair at the break and placed his head in his hands.

Federer served out the set, but del Potro rebounded from his setback by making the first break in the fourth set to go 3-2 up.

The Argentinian was beginning to enjoy himself, holding serve during a game in which he won a long rally with a forehand down the line and then ‘high-fived’ spectators along the side of the court.

Federer, by contrast, was all business – holding serve and then forcing a break point before del Potro netted one of his booming forehands and conceded his lead at 4-4.A forceful hold of serve took Federer to the brink of victory, and del Potro did not start his service game in confident mood – falling behind 15-30 before producing a 128mph service winner and then a 131mph ace, holding serve with a rocket of a forehand winner down the line.

Federer looked to have responded in kind, opening with an ace and racing to 40-0 before saving two two break-points and recovering to win with an ace.

The set went to a tie-break, del Potro earning a mini-break at the start and taking the set when Federer sent a forehand return wide.

It was the first time Federer had been sent into a fifth set in a US Open final – and the decider did not start well for the champion, broken in the second game and falling 3-0 behind.

Del Potro moved to 5-2 by serving to love, clubbing another forehand winner off a backhand service return for the winning point.

Federer went 0-30 in the next game, and a wild backhand gave del Potro two championship points.

A nervous rally ended with the sixth seed scooping a forehand wide, and he netted a forehand return to deuce as Federer screamed ‘Come on’. A much better forehand saved a game point for a second deuce, but Federer double-faulted again to bring up a third match point.

This time del Potro had his moment, Federer stretching in vain to send a backhand long as the 20-year-old fell to the ground to absorb the enormity of his victory.

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Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes have teamed to win the men’s doubles title at the U.S. Open.

Dlouhy and Paes defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday at Flushing Meadows.

This marks the fifth Grand Slam tournament title for Paes and his second with Dlouhy. They lost to the American team of Bob and Mike Bryan in last year’s U.S. Open final but beat them in the semifinals this year.

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The US Open tournament director Jim Curley said that the weather forecast has given the U.S.T.A. hope that more matches will be played today, despite the rain that started again shortly after the men’s quarterfinal between Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez finished.

Curley said breaks in the rain are expected and the schedule was shifted, moving the men’s doubles final off Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Next up there, when play can resume, will be the women’s semifinal between Caroline Wozniacki and Yanina Wickmayer. The other women’s semi between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, is still set for tonight at 8 p.m. in Ashe Stadium.

Curley did acknowledge the tournament’s good fortune that Nadal and Gonzalez finished their match before the rain started. Nadal finished out the resumed match, leading 3-2 in the second set tiebreaker, in less than 33 minutes. The men’s doubles finalists had barely gotten on the court for warmups following them when play had to be suspended.

“I have to admit I’m very pleased that that match is finished,” Curley said.

That means, in a worst-case scenario with the rest of Saturday being washed out, the women’s and men’s semifinals could be played Sunday and both the women’s and men’s finals could be played on Monday. As of now, the women’s final is scheduled for Sunday night and the men’s final would be played Monday afternoon.

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