Serena Williams

Let's get right to the point. Serena Williams should be fined heavily and suspended for a while from the pro tennis tour. Let's see what kind of guts the normally soft-on-discipline sport of tennis has this time. If she were an Oregon football player, she'd be out for the season. If you saw it on television, you know what happened, you know that she made a fool out of herself Saturday night in an ugly incident at the U.S. Open. If you didn't see it, we'll confirm it: Serena Williams made a fool out of herself Saturday night in an ugly incident at the U.S. Open.

So maybe it's not swine flu, but the nation seems to have come down with a serious case of impulse control disorder. Symptoms include (but are not limited to) Kanye West snatching Taylor Swift's moment at MTV's Video Music Awards; Serena Williams threatening, with expletives, to cram her ball down a lineswoman's throat at the U.S. Open; and Rep. Joe Wilson's inability to contain the urge to denigrate President Obama while the president was in the middle of addressing the nation on a topic of critical importance.

Serena Williams will be fined a total of $10,500 for behavior deemed "unsportsmanlike conduct" and for racket abuse after her aggressive, obscenity-filled reaction to a critical foot fault called during her 6-4, 7-5 U.S. Open semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters on Saturday night. There will also be further investigation of the incident, according to a statement from the International Tennis Federation that was released by the Open. The statement said, "additional penalties can be imposed."

Despite evidence to the contrary, new No. 1 Dinara Safina is not the best women's player in the world, according to the new No. 2. "We all know who the real No. 1 is," Serena Williams told a news conference at the Italian Open at Rome on Monday. "Quite frankly, I'm the best in the world." Asked which opponent she feared the most, Williams stuck to the same theme: "Probably myself. I always beat myself." Williams can point to her record of 10 Grand Slam titles, 10 more than Safina has won.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- First glances, as it turned out, were utterly deceiving at the Australian Open. Seventh-seeded Serena Williams showed up on Day 1 looking fit and eager, and at great ease, joking about dispensing relationship advice. As for Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, she got through the first day by the slimmest of margins, needing to save three match points and seeming to be collecting new injuries by the minute. Talk about Trading Places. No.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Serbia 2, Williams family 0. That was the one-sided scoreline in the span of about 24 hours at the Australian Open. Neither defending champion Serena Williams nor her older sister Venus was able to win a set in their quarterfinals against rapidly improving Serbian baseliners. Fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic defeated No. 8 Venus Williams, 7-6 (3), 6-4, today, echoing Serena's straight-sets loss to No. 3 Jelena Jankovic. The match time was nearly the same.

Serena Williams made Justine Henin, the world's top-ranked woman, look like a novice as she pulled off a 6-2, 6-0 victory Tuesday to advance to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla. Williams won the final 10 games while Henin unraveled after she double-faulted three times to fall behind, 4-2. "It wasn't easy," Williams said. "It was just the fact of me making the right shots at the right time." Svetlana Kuznetsova prevented an all-Williams semifinal.

Serena Williams struggled a bit before defeating Jelena Jankovic, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, Saturday at Key Biscayne, Fla., for her fifth title at the Sony Ericsson Open. Williams, seeded eighth, survived some shaky play down the stretch and an improbable comeback by the fourth-seeded Jankovic, who trailed, 5-3, in the second set. Williams closed out the match on her eighth championship point with an overhead slam. "It definitely got tough," Williams said during the trophy ceremony.

Serena Williams extended her winning streak against Maria Sharapova on Friday at Charleston, S.C., advancing to the Family Circle Cup semifinals by defeating the fourth-ranked player in the world, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1. Williams has defeated Sharapova four consecutive times since 2005 and is 5-2 overall against her. This was their first meeting on clay. Williams struggled in the first set, which featured several long games. She won one game after it went to deuce seven times.

Making a rare combined appearance in Southern California, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams have entered the East West Bank Classic tournament, July 21-27 at the Home Depot Center. It is the first time since 2004 that both of the sisters, who grew up in nearby Compton, have played the event. Neither played in Carson last year, and in fact, Venus, whose best result came with a semifinal appearance in 2004, has not played here since.