Serena Williams has got off scot free from her second successive tantrum at the US Open after another disgraceful decision was made by the US Tennis Association to cap off two weeks of a succession of failures on their part.

After Sunday’s final it had become glaringly obvious that the American needs to be taught a lesson and she needs to be taught it now.

Sadly Tournament referee Brian Earley chose to turn a blind eye to her latest offence and Williams has been fined a measly $2,000 and her probation is officially over. Her fine is 1/700 of her prize money and frankly it’s an insult to an umpire who was simply doing her job.

Serena who two years ago – her last appearance in New York prior to this fortnight – threatened a line judge saying she was going to “shove a ball down her throat” because the woman was doing her job and called her on a foot-fault during her semi-final with Kim Clijsters, threw another fit on Sunday night.

This time it was because she screamed “c'mon” during a rally before her opponent actually reached for the ball, which drove the umpire to give her a point penalty for “intentional hindrance”.

Two years ago Serena’s match ended on a point penalty for her tirade over the foot-fault call and although she lost the respect of thousands of fans for her verbal assault on the linesperson, there were still some die-hard fans who cut her some slack on the premise that it was such a critical point in the match – the second serve fault handed Clijsters a match point – and that Serena was only human to lose her cool.

Those fans can rest now because Sunday’s point was far from being a match point (it was in the opening game of the second set) yet her behaviour was equally abhorrant.

First she mistook the umpire from Sunday for the umpire from the 2009 semi-final as if that official had a certain thing against her. For the record, Sunday’s official was Eva Asderaki from Greece while the umpire from two years ago was Louise Engzell of Sweden. Is it because they’re both blondes?

Second she went on a berating frenzy during the change-over calling Asderaki a “hater”, a “loser” and “unattractive inside” saying: “you’re giving me a code violation because I expressed who I am? We’re in America, last I checked.”

Clearly Serena is confusing what it means to be a champion, an American or a self-respected person because her on-court behaviour followed by her lack of remorse in both her press conferences from 2009.

Sunday night is a clear indication that she believes she can get away with these kind of antics and it’s high time she learnt that her conduct is unacceptable. She refused to take responsibility for her actions in the press room and kept dodging questions.

When asked if top-level athletes should treat referees and officials with respect, her response was: “I don’t know." If she really doesn’t know if it’s important to respect officials then the solution is very simple – give her a ban she will never forget and maybe then she will have the answer to such basic questions from the press.

The ITF and the USTA just lost any credibility they might have had and it’s nauseating that once again Serena will go unscathed by her misdeeds (I don’t consider her paying $82,500 in 2009 a big deal considering how much prize money she won).

For now, I’m sure they’re celebrating the fact that this final had a 121 per cent boost in TV ratings compared to last year. That’s 121 per cent more people watching a public disgrace.

Serena is celebrating her 16th year as a professional on tour and I truly believe that one way or another, she needs to be forced to reflect on what the term “professional” really means.