London, Sept 12 : Serena Williams escaped severe punishment for insulting an umpire during the US Open tennis final, by being fined only a paltry sum of 2,000 dollars.

After reviewing the evidence, Grand Slam committee director Bill Babcock opted to let her off with a paltry 2,000 dollars fine, The Telegraph reports.

Williams has been on a two-year probation since threatening to kill a lineswoman at the 2009 US Open by stuffing a ball down her throat.

As far as the latest abuse is concerned, Babcock decided that it did not constitute a major offence. The 2,000 dollars fine was the minimum punishment he could have applied, given that Asderaki had issued Williams with a code violation for verbal abuse during the match, the paper said.

The fine represents one seven-hundredth of Williams's income from this tournament.

She won 900,000 dollars as her runners-up prize and an extra 500,000 dollars for finishing first in the US Open Series, which takes into account results in other hard-court tournaments during the American summer. Asderaki, by contrast, would have collected 250 dollars as her match fee.

During the match, Williams shouted at the umpire, saying "Aren't you the one who screwed me over last time?" - a reference, perhaps, to a similar but far less controversial incident in Doha in 2003.

But the worst of the abuse came at the next change of ends, when Williams called Asderaki "a hater" and said "you're very unattractive inside". (ANI)