New York, Sep 10: Tennis star Serena Williams has been fined $17,000 by the organizers of the US Open for committing three violations of the code of conduct during the second set of the women's final, which she lost on the weekend to Japan's Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4.

Williams was sanctioned in the second set by the judge seated at the net, Portugal's Carlos Ramos, for receiving help - in the form of a hand signal - from the box of her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, breaking her racket against the court surface and verbally abusing the judge by calling him a 'thief', reports Efe news.

Williams, who was fined on Sunday, called the judge's decision "sexist" at a later press conference, saying that she had seen male players calling umpires "several things" but they were not penalized for their behaviour.

Her actions eclipsed the triumph of the 20-year-old Osaka, who became the first Japanese tennis player to win the US Open and a Grand Slam single's tourney.

The US player, 36, who was competing in her 14th US Open, failed to win her seventh title in the season's last Grand Slam event, a win that would have been the 24th of her career, thus allowing her to tie the legendary Margaret Court of Australia in terms of tourney wins.

Williams received $1.85 million for playing in the final. Her fine will be deducted from that amount.

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Davanagere: An incident of a boy accused of theft being tied to an arecanut tree and tortured by letting red ants into his private parts has come to light late, with a video of the scene, reportedly from Asthapana Halli near Nallur in Channagiri taluk, going viral.

The incident is learned to have occurred a few months ago. The boy, who belongs to the Hakki Pikki tribal community, was attacked by a group of 10 to 15 youngsters of the same community. The youngsters are seen in the video clip assaulting the boy with sticks and a drip pipe even as the boy continues to scream.

An FIR has been filed against nine of the suspects in connection with the incident, based on a complaint filed by the boy’s grandfather. Two of the suspects have also been arrested by the police.

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