Serena pokes fun at '09 foot fault debacle in ad

These days, when pesky reporters ask her about her 2009 U.S. Open foot fault debacle, Serena Williams airily professes to memory loss. It's behind her, so long ago, so yesterday.

Until recently, when Serena popped up in the latest of a series of clever ads by Wilson rackets pitching their new BLX blade racket. The ad's concept, which has also included Venus Williams and Roger Federer, has average club players struggling until the pro wheels out a psychiatrist's couch and gives them a pep talk - and the new racket.

In the Serena spot, below, the grateful player makes the mistake of putting his feet up on the star's couch. She asks him to take his feet off her couch, and he does - but then denies doing it.

This prompts a min-outburst from Serena - "I know a foot fault when I" - before she takes a deep zen breath and stops herself.

"See what I just did there? That was control," she adds.

The punchline is control, which is what Serena wishes she had had in her 2009 U.S. Open semifinal against Kim Clijsters, when the star was two points away from losing the match. A lineswoman called a foot fault on her second serve, and she lost the final point after the umpire docked her for cursing at the lineswoman.

It's smart damage control for the star, who turns 30 this September and has long seemed interested in a media/performing career outside tennis.

And considering the hard times she's faced in the past year - a nagging foot injury, blood clots in her lungs, surgery for a hematoma in her stomach - who can blame her for wanting to move on from an ugly moment in an overall spectacular career.