While getting whipped by Sam Stosur in the US Open final, Serena Williams shows her 'unattractive on the inside' side.
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Serena Williams
This year's US Open final was supposed to be Samantha Stosur's moment. The Aussie played the match of her life to win the first grand slam title by an Australian female since Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Instead, the spotlight was stolen by her beaten opponent. Penalised for shouting 'Come on!' as Stosur stretched for a shot at the start of the second set, Williams let rip at experienced chair umpire Eva Asderaki.
The interaction unfolded as follows:
Asderaki: "It's her point."
Williams: "I don't understand."
Asderaki: "Because when you called out, she got distracted."
Williams: "Are you the one that screwed me over the last time here? You're nobody. You're ugly on the inside.
"Don't even look at me. If I see you in the corridor don't even walk past me because you're out of control, you're out of control.
"You're totally out of control, you're a hater and you're just unattractive inside. Who would do such a thing? And I never complain. Wow. You're a loser."
Having established that she was not a complainer, Williams continued by accusing Asderaki of restricting her right to free speech.
"I get a code violation for expressing who I am. We're in America last time I checked. Am I going to get violated for [asking for] water?"
Williams was fined $175,000 after a 2009 incident at Flushing Meadows in which she threatened to shove a ball down a lineswoman's throat. On this occasion the US Tennis Association ruled the outburst "did not rise to the level of a major offence under the grand slam code of conduct". It fined her $2000, an amount representing one seven-hundredth of Williams' prize money for the tournament.
Steve Williams
Williams caddied for Tiger Woods for 13 of the American's 14 major titles. But when Woods sacked his long-time bagman in July, Williams was furious and threatened to write a tell-all book. The New Zealander hooked up with Australian Adam Scott and in August helped Scott win the Bridgestone Invitational. "I've been caddying for 33 years, 145 wins," Williams said afterwards "and that's the best week of my life."
If it wasn't already clear that he was aiming a barb at Woods, Williams explained at an end-of-year caddy function "it was my aim to shove it right up that black arsehole". An apology and the year's stoniest handshake followed.
Mal Meninga
Queensland won this year's State of Origin series, but to hear Meninga tell it you would be forgiven for imagining NSW had coasted to a record victory. "What the Maroons achieved on Wednesday night ... was a victory against the very rats and filth that tried to poison a monumental team with lies, personal attacks, arrogance and disrespect," the Queensland coach wrote in an extraordinary newspaper column published four days after the Origin decider.
Meninga went on to lash the officials who suspended David Taylor for game three and called Johnathan Thurston before the tribunal, claiming his team was the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by "faceless men of influence who claim their agenda is to benefit the game". When Meninga ignored the NRL match review committee's deadline for an apology, the committee began defamation proceedings.
John Daly
Golf's Wild Thing speared a tee shot into the water on the par-three 15th during the second round of September's Austrian Open, and his club soon followed. Daly took a drop, but on completing the hole was informed he might have dropped his ball in the wrong place and could incur a two-shot penalty. "I'm done," he told an official, and walked off the course.
Two months later, water again proved Daly's undoing. After triple-bogeying the 10th hole in the opening round of the Australian Open, he stepped up to the tee at the 11th and hit up to seven balls into the drink. He quit the Lakes course immediately and was whisked away in a white four-wheel drive.
While many commentators called for Daly to never be invited back to Australia, Craig Parry was a lone voice of support, claiming the Texan's walk-off was justified as he had simply run out of balls. Organisers were less forgiving. They banned Daly from competing in the Australian PGA Championship later that month.
Kobe Bryant
After receiving a technical foul during an April NBA game against the San Antonio Spurs, the LA Lakers star stomped to the bench. He then unleashed a homophobic slur at Bennie Adams that prompted TV commentator Steve Kerr to ask producers to cut away from Bryant "for the children watching from home".
"What I said last night should not be taken literally," said Bryant later. "My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period." The NBA fined him $100,000.
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