Obvious Solution to Serena's Outburst

In a profane outburst that nearly obscured the fact that she'd simply been outplayed, Serena Williams delivered a tirade at someone misguided enough to serve as a linesman at the U.S. Open in a performance not seen at the U.S. Open since the retirement of superbrat Johnny Mac.

Yes, Serena deserved the boos from a crowd that saw her lose her mind first-hand after the linesman called foot fault on a second serve at a crucial stage of the match. No, Kim Clijsters didn't deserve an end to a Grand Slam match as ugly as anything since Justine Henin defaulted to Amelie Mauresmo in the finals of the Australian because Justine couldn't accept the fact that Amelie that day was the better player. And yes, Serena and Venus were the only players this entire U.S. Open who I saw get called for foot faults. And calling someone for a foot fault at that stage in the match definitely was questionable. That of course did not excuse Serena's behavior. Or make the fact that she'd been outplayed completely vanish.

But, folks, there's an easy solution to this kind of debacle. Let shot spot, or some electronic equivalent, be available to players when a call like this is made, so they can use one of their challenges to question it, and have the peace of mind to know that at least a wrong call wasn't made. Had shot spot been available, Serena might have simply challenged the call, glared at the linesman if she had been wrong and moved on.

Now it's Clijsters who moves on to the finals against rising star Caroline Wozniacki. And here's a relief, both the finalists seem as down-right nice on the court as Serena seems off it.