BEIJING, China (Reuters) – Serena Williams is likely to discover whether she will be further punished for her outburst at a line judge at the U.S. Open before the end of the year, WTA chief executive Stacey Allaster said yesterday.

The Australian Open and Wimbledon champion was fined $10 000 for the verbal attack on the official during the semi-finals at Flushing Meadow last month.

The 28-year-old, however, still faces possible exclusion from future grand slam events after a further review by the Grand Slam Committee, which oversees the four major tournaments in tennis.

“First of all, I’d like to say I think Serena is a fantastic champion and a great person,” Allaster told reporters at the China Open.

“She has acknowledged the incident in New York as being a mistake, and something that she’s not proud of, and she’s apologised for that.

“That is under investigation, it is ongoing … it would be safe to assume that they will make a decision before year-end.

“I think all of us would love to have it resolved sooner rather than later. It would be in the best interests for the sport and definitely the best interests for Serena.”

Williams bowed out of the China Open in the third round this week, but not before assuring that she would return to the number one spot in the rankings next week.

The 11-time grand slam singles champion had no altercations with officials and said she had taken on board the lessons from the incident.

“I’m a very passionate player, and I do the best I can in the best manner I can,” she said after her defeat to Nadia Petrova.

“Obviously I’d be not smart if I were to do the same thing. It’s important for people to learn from things they did in the past, and I learned and I would never do the same thing.”