Serena Williams just had a short fuse moment. She managed to pull herself together and shake hands with Kim Clijsters. There were some far worse incidents in Tennis for example Tim Hennman once shot a ball at a ball boy. I also heard Federer arguing with the judge at the final, saying something interalced with "fu**ing" and "I don't give a sh*t".
In America, feathers of the uptight sportscasters and writers get a little ruffled by an athlete shouting obscenities like the f word or the s word, etc while arguing with the referee. But as John Mcenroe point out, there is a clear distinction with what Serena Williams did. (He was pointing out that Roger Federer's arguing with the judge in his match yesterday was completely different and cannot be compared to Serena's tirade). That is because she physically threatened the linesjudge. She threatened to stuff the ball down her throat and kill her. That is crossing the line, and everyone knows that, whether they are too PC to say it or not.
This is completely different from outbursts in the past like Mcenroe telling someone to get glasses or using a bad word. When you threaten to physically attack the person, that is inexcusable. And Mcenroe himself said this, and he tried to offer Serena a chance yesterday to apologize in a postgame interview by challenging her on it, and she (with her sister's help) refused the opportunity.
I am surprised to see people defending serena's animalistic roidrage type incident.