Another year on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has reached an end, with one player standing above the rest.

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She finishes the 2009 season as the No.1 professional female tennis player in both ranking and reputation. She is Serena Williams.

What are we to remember among Serena’s many undertakings this year? Perhaps her Grand Slam singles and doubles wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.  Or perhaps her commanding performance at the season-ending Tour Championships, in which she defeated her sister not once, but twice before taking the title.

We could remember that this was the year in which Serena released her memoirs, On the Line, in which she discusses both the highs and lows of her climb to the top of the tennis world. 

Those of us with an appreciation of the female body might recall an unclothed Serena featured on the cover of ESPN’s ‘The Body’ Issue.

Thinking along financial lines, we may consider her accomplishment of setting a new single-season record on the tour in prize money by bringing in more than six-and-a-half million dollars. 

Furthermore, this is the year that Serena finally managed to surpass Lindsay Davenport as the all-time leader in career prize money for women’s tennis, having earned more than $23m over her storied career. 

These last two feats make her $10,500 fine for her angry outburst in the semi-finals of the US Open seem like a few pennies lying around in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Speaking of this punishment via payment, what is to be made of Serena’s lack of decorum on center court during the semi-final of the season’s final Grand Slam? Despite all the above-mentioned accomplishments, her tirade at the US Open is what I will remember Serena for the most this year.

For those who have not been keeping up with the news these last few months, Serena was penalised a point, which happened to fall on match point, after yelling and shaking her racket in the direction of an official who called a foot fault during her serve. 

Thanks to the power of television, people around the world could see and hear Serena threatening to shove a tennis ball down the lineswoman’s throat. 

Serena had already received a code violation warning at the end of the first set for slamming her racket in anger. The chair umpire, after consultation with the tournament referee, issued her a point penalty for her behaviur toward the official. 

This handed the match to an unseeded and unranked Kim Clijsters, who would go on to win the title in amazing fashion.

As Serena’s berating of the lineswoman was shocking behavior, anyone who had followed her career closely knew that her passion in the moment and unwillingness to concede even an inch on the court could lead to such a display. 

The reason the incident will remain in my memory is not as much a consequence of the actions by Serena, but instead the poor handling of the situation by tournament officials.

To illustrate my point, let’s go back in time. There have been only two match defaults in the 36-year history of the WTA Tour. The first was in 1996, when a hot-tempered Romanian player, Irina Spîrlea, cursed out an umpire during a match played in Palermo, Italy.  

The second incident was one that I had the bizarre privilege of witnessing first-hand. On a gloomy afternoon in July 2007, Anastasia Rodionova was disqualified during the third set of a tight match against Germany’s Angelique Kerber at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati.  

The frustrated Russian fired a tennis ball into the middle of the support wall directly under three female fans who had been heckling her throughout the match. 

The umpire stopped play and, after a discussion with the tournament referee, announced that Rodionova would be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, making Kerber the winner by default.

The umpire proceeded to climb out of her chair and run off the court to a chorus of boos from the 50 or so fans in the stands.

At the conclusion of the match, I spoke with the three female fans who had been the apparent target of Rodionova’s anger. They said they were just as surprised at the decision for default as everyone else, and they did not feel threatened by the player when she hit the ball into the back curtain. 

This was echoed by tournament referee William Coffey, who told reporters that, while he did not believe Rodionova was trying to hit the women, her conduct was “disrespectful and potentially very dangerous."

Why was Serena given a point penalty and a small fine instead of being defaulted by tournament officials for her behavior? How were her actions any more justifiable than those of the Russian player?

I believe it is because of her commanding presence and celebrity status both within and outside of tennis.

Serena has remained the most visible and competitive player on the tour since the turn of the century, and her popularity is unmatched by any other woman in the sporting world. 

Advertisers love her, fans flock to see her, and tournaments do everything they can to bring her to their event.

While some players, such as Lindsay Davenport, have felt more comfortable outside of the public eye during their careers, Serena has always relished the spotlight. 

Regardless of her persona, whether we are seeing Serena the person, the player, or the actress, she is certainly an irreplaceable figure. 

If this year is any indication of what is yet to come, we have plenty to look forward to. Let’s just hope she keeps her foot behind the line instead of on it.

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