{"id":165178,"date":"2025-06-07T14:31:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T14:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165178\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T14:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T14:31:16","slug":"lying-and-fabricating-serena-williams-slammed-opponent-for-controversial-french-open-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/165178\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lying and fabricating’ – Serena Williams slammed opponent for controversial French Open incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serena Williams was in such extraordinary form during the beginning of the 21st century that only controversy could stop her.<\/strong><\/p>\n

French Open, Wimbledon and US Open title wins in 2002 would mark the start of outstanding achievement for the American superstar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Williams was seemingly unbeatable at the start of 2023Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Williams then won the 2003 Australian Open to win career and non-calendar year Grand Slams, with the latter nicknamed a ‘Serena Slam’.<\/p>\n

Roland Garros<\/a> welcomed her back as the reigning champion that year and it appeared as though a fifth consecutive major would follow.<\/p>\n

Barbara Rittner, Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian, Barbara Schett, Ai Sugiyama and Amelie Mauresmo were all beaten in straight sets on the clay.<\/p>\n

Williams dropped just 19 of the 80 games she played on her path to a second consecutive semi-final appearance.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON THE FRENCH OPEN<\/p>\n

Justine Henin, who lost only one set across her five matches prior to the last four, was eyed as the penultimate opponent in Paris.<\/p>\n

Despite losing the first set, Williams fought back to take the second and ensure a third was needed to decide one of the two finalists.<\/p>\n

She served and led 30-0 in the seventh game after Henin hit a forehand shot that landed just beyond the baseline.<\/p>\n

Williams fired back but swiftly raised her hand and as the shot was called out, she pointed to the mark on the court in confirmation.<\/p>\n

Henin seemed to protest but umpire Jorge Dias double-checked himself and the decision stood in favour of the defending title holder.<\/p>\n

The French Open crowd booed and jeered both before and after the call was confirmed, although they didn’t stop for the next serve.<\/p>\n

\"Henin<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Henin raised her hand just as Williams served due to noise from the crowdCredit: Roland-Garros YouTube\"Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Williams told the umpire about the gestureCredit: Roland-Garros YouTube\"But<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

But when asked, Henin remained silent and went on to win the pointCredit: Roland-Garros YouTube<\/p>\n

Just as Williams threw the ball into the air before striking, Henin held her hand up in an attempt the delay play amid the crowd noise.<\/p>\n

The serve hit the net and Henin’s gesture didn’t go unnoticed by her opponent, who shouted: “She had her hand up!”<\/p>\n

Dias said he didn’t see and seeked verification, which did not come.<\/p>\n

Williams was more successful with her second serve but lost the point and then the game to leave the set hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

Although she was losing 4-3, Henin capitalised by winning four of the next five games to advance to the French Open women’s singles final.<\/p>\n

Williams expressed her disappointment with her opponent after the defeat that ended her hopes of winning five Grand Slams in a row.<\/p>\n

\"Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Williams claimed that Henin was ‘lying and fabricating’Credit: Getty\"Henin<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Henin then won the French Open after the controversial semi-final clashCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I was a little disappointed with her,” she said<\/a> as per tennis.com. “I probably still should have won the game. <\/p>\n

“It definitely didn\u2019t turn around the match. But I think to start lying and fabricating, it\u2019s not fair.”<\/p>\n

Williams added: “It was just a tough crowd out there today, really very tough; story of my life.”<\/p>\n

Henin beat Kim Clijsters 6-0 6-4 in the final to win the first of seven Grand Slam titles, four of which came at the French Open.<\/p>\n

However, the Belgian later revealed her regret over how the hand gesture against Williams in their semi-final preceded her title victory.<\/p>\n

“I think she saw it and was disturbed by that. So it\u2019s true that it’s not the best memory.”<\/p>\n

French Open star forced to break up fight in crowd and punishes them both\"Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Williams added another two French Open titles to her glittering collectionCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Williams had to wait until 2013 to win the French Open for a second time, with her third and final honour following two years later.<\/p>\n

Her total of 23 Grand Slam titles in the second highest in the history of women’s singles tennis.<\/p>\n

Margaret Court leads on 24, with Steffi Graf just one behind Williams on 22 to complete the top three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serena Williams was in such extraordinary form during the beginning of the 21st century that only controversy could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[5066,22955,10095,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-165178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-french-open","9":"tag-justine-henin","10":"tag-serena-williams","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114642569771397791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}