LONDON (AP) — Serena Williams and Viktor Troicki were fined $10,000 apiece on Saturday at Wimbledon for unsportsmanlike conduct. The biggest amount deducted from a player’s paycheck at this year’s tournament so far was the $12,000 for Britain’s Heather Watson, for jamming her racket into the grass.
The No. 1-seeded Williams’ fine was from her second-round victory over Christina McHale at Centre Court on Friday. She smashed her racket repeatedly against the turf while sitting in her sideline chair after dropping the first set, then flung the piece of equipment so far behind her that it landed in the lap of a TV cameraman.
Afterward, Williams said she knew she would lose some money and joked about having not yet met her quota for harming rackets this season.
”I’ve cracked a number of rackets throughout my career. I’ve gotten fined a number of times for cracking rackets. In fact, I look at it like I didn’t crack one at the French Open or Rome, so I was doing really good,” Williams said. ”I don’t want to go too long without cracking a racket. You know, I’m on track. I try to crack a certain amount a year. I’m a little behind this year, so it was good.”
Troicki, a Serb seeded 25th, was punished for his tirade against chair umpire Damiano Torella at the end of a five-set loss in the second round on Thursday.
”Worst umpire ever in the world! What are you doing? Did you see the ball?” Troicki screamed, also telling Torella: ”You’re horrible!”
The outburst was prompted by a call as Troicki’s opponent, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, served for the match at 5-3 in the final set. At 30-all, Ramos-Vinolas hit a serve that initially was called out by a linesman behind Troicki. It was not clear, exactly, who changed that ruling, but Torella announced the score had become 40-30, crediting Ramos-Vinolas with an ace and pushing him to match point.
Later, speaking to a small group of reporters, Troicki said about Torella: ”He has no experience, no knowledge about anything. He’s just sitting there, calling the score, not trying to watch the ball.”
The umpire gave Troicki a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct. When play resumed, Ramos-Vinolas hit a serve that Troicki returned long with a backhand to end the match.
After the two players met at the net for a handshake, Troicki approached Torella again, waving a hand at him and saying: ”Do you know what you did?” three times.
Troicki carried on, then headed directly from Court 17 to the tournament referee’s office to explain his displeasure.
”He should be also fined, if you ask me,” Troicki said about the chair umpire. ”He should be the one who’s fined. I’m not saying he cost me the match, but he cost me an important point which could have changed the outcome of the match.”
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