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Women's draw Are we back to Serena domination of the WTA Tour or she is the best one left in a bad bunch? Clijsters is injured again, Wozniacki is proving a dud at number one and every other player on the women's tour seems to have issues. It seems there has never been a more urgent need for some fresh young faces to step forward and really upset the applecart. With Hurricane Irene surging up the east coast of the US, it's hard to know at this stage just how disrupted the tournament will be, but it's a long, long odds-on that critics will be calling for a roof to be built over the show courts yet again…. Working down the draw this time. 1 - Wozniacki. In the papers more for her lovelife now than her tennis. Is that first Grand Slam win ever going to emerge? Losing first-up to McHale in Cincinnati isn't the way to suggest it will be this time, although she did reverse that result in New Haven, a tournament she always plays well in. Has form here but backing h...

Serena Williams says her record fine for her death threat to the lineswoman at the US Open is a sexist vendetta against her. Her argument is based on the "significantly lesser" punishments for John McEnroe (Aus Open, 1990) and Jeff Tarango (Wimbledon, 1995). McEnroe swore at the chair umpire and tournament referee, and was defaulted - the first time that had happened at a Grand Slam in the professional era. He was heavily fined as well, by 1990 standards. Was there a death threat to any official? No. Tarango had an argument with the umpire, called him corrupt, walked off, and later, his batty wife slapped the chair umpire. He was suspended from Wimbledon and another Grand Slam event, plus a US$63k fine. Was there a death threat involved? No. Williams has been fined US$82500 provided she behaves herself at the Grand Slams for two years. Given inflation, that is much less than Tarango's fine! Relative to the prizemoney available on tour then and now, the full fine of $175k ...

Am I the only one that casts a wry smile over these types of incidents? - Flavio Briatore has to fall on his sword when sacked driver Nelson Piquet Jr gets his own back by blowing the whistle on being instructed to crash in the Singapore Grand Prix last year to help his team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race. After initial denials and threats of lawsuits, a newspaper gets hold of the transcripts and suddenly the facts come out.... - Serena Williams getting a point penalty for threatening an official at the US Open and thus losing the match. Not just any match, but a Grand Slam semi-final. Had she not destroyed a racuet earlier in the match, she may have even got away with it. Whether the line judge was correct or not with the call(I still haven't seen any camera angle which proves it either way), no sporting official should ever be threatened like that, and she should have been defaulted for that alone. Using American sport as an example, she'd have been suspended for months if...