Andre Agassi had tough words for Serena Williams after her threatening outburst at the U.S. Open. Agassi and I were talking Tuesday about his upcoming charity concert on Saturday, the Grand Slam for Children, when I asked for his thoughts on Williams. "Certainly, what she did was beyond out of line. It was quite despicable," Agassi said. He's also disappointed in Williams' apology which suggested she's an intense competitor who lost her focus for a moment, and the rest of us should move past it. "That," the retired tennis hero said, "is not an excuse for the lack of accountability that should exist with actions like that. It's one thing to argue an issue on the court. It's another thing to threaten a person. And that's a line that shouldn't be crossed." Williams, you know, screamed at a line judge, "If I could, I would take this (expletive) ball and shove it down your (expletive) throat." If Williams had a more thoughtful post-outburst follow-through, she could have turned her worst moment into her best, Agassi said. "In life, some of our darkest moments can be our finest, depending on what we choose to do with it." Agassi said he or any other player could have done what Williams did. It's not easy to judge her because "you don't know what it's like to walk a mile in her shoes."
But if Agassi had melted down like that, "I know one thing for sure. It'd be really hard for me to live with myself if I didn't continually express my deepest regrets for how I conducted myself." As for the foot fault that led to Williams' tirade, Agassi couldn't tell on TV whether Williams stepped on the line or not. If Agassi had been the linesman during that match point, Williams would have to have violated that line "by a significant margin for me to pull that trigger." But a linesman's call is a linesman's call, he said.
-- Doug Elfman (Los Angeles Review-Journal)
Andre is not free of having on-court "moments" either, check out this link - Andre has a moment.
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