Sunday, September 13, 2009

Don't You Get DQ'd in Other Sports, Too?

There is a lot of grumbling in Australia via the whip rule changes. Namely, your horse can get DQ'd if your jock does something wrong with the whip. It is the same here in Ontario. If a whipping infraction occurs in a race, any race, your horse can be set back - both parimutuelly and in terms of finish position, for the owners check.

But I was surfing today, and is it not similar in every other sport? If you know going in, why would you complain?

Check out the Serena Williams' situation last night at the US Open. Quite interesting.

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Williams wasn't disqualified, and the loss came as a result of her behavior, not the foot fault.

The foot fault came on a second serve, resulting in a double fault, giving Clisters a point--on Williams' serve, the score was then 30-40--match point for Clijsters.

Williams had been warned for bad behavior earlier in the match, and after the foot fault, she used profane and threatening language with the lineswoman. According to the rules, this second infraction (the behavior) results in a one-point penalty.

The penalty happened to come on match point, hence the loss. If the incident/penalty had happened one point earlier, she'd simply have lost a point and the match would have continued.

She wasn't disqualified; she just lost, because she behaved badly.

Sorry to be such a tennis geek. =)

Pull the Pocket said...

Thanks for the tennis geek explanation T :)

I noted in the last paragraph her loss of a point meant she lost, but rarely (if ever) express myself properly :) My bad.

What an episode eh? I was pretty shocked at her supposed language. I usually only hear such things at the track.

jamesp said...

Saturday, September 12 - Race 6 at Saratoga Harness: Winner pays $115 and second horse pays $25 to place. The 6-3 exacta pays only $252. Somebody banged that one! I wonder if the track would investigate the wagering patterns?

Teresa said...

The Williams incident has given rise to conversation about whether such behavior SHOULD result in a DQ, instead of a warning or a point penalty. A variety of scenarios would have meant that she could have kept playing after that outburst, which would have been outrageous. Lots of discussion, too, about whether she should have been suspended from her US Open doubles match and other upcoming matches.

Tennis is one of my big 3, along with hockey and horse racing...as if you couldn't tell!

Brett Coffey said...

Hi,

Actually in Australia you cannot protest against a horse because the jockey hit his horse too many times.

This has been one of the criticisms of the new rules.

See a story about a recent incident here: http://tinyurl.com/prl8w6

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