Tour Rules: Made To Be Broken

Serena’s fine at the U.S. Open doesn’t tell the real story about rules on the tour. About a year and half ago, now 13-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams was fined $82,500 for launching an eye-popping verbal assault at a lineswomen at the 2009 US Open and also put on a two-year probation at the majors. Williams was furious that so much cash came directly out of her pocket and protested it publicly. That public protest was unusual, because the direct hit out of her pocket was also unusual. For the most part, players rarely have to give back money they earn, regardless of the offense. This is because in the ATP and WTA worlds today, the offenders are granted more out clauses than Houdini found holes in the straight jackets that he escaped from. Both tours have thick rules books which discuss the various penalties for missing mandatory events, verbally thrashing umpires or linespeople, or skipping out of press conferences. But the tour’s dirty little secret is that they are rarely enforced. That’s not always the case with the Grand Slams, which function independently from the tours. They have been known to take decent sized chunks out of players’…