“I’m confused. What hysteria?” – @doschicos, it’s the lead story on CNN’s website, Huffington Post, Daily Mail and among the top stories on FOX. You think McEnroe got that kind of coverage after his rants?
Of course it’s going to make headlines. It happened at the USO in a championship match.
I agree with surfcity and emilybee. I don’t think the umpire ruined anything. Serena received coaching from the stands. Her coached admitted as much. That is a breach of tennis rules, so she deserved the first violation. Smashing her racket was a second breach of tennis rules. Insulting the umpire was her third violation.
If anybody ruined anything, it is Serena who ruined Naomi’s moment. Truly unbecoming. I like Serena, but this attitude was beneath her.
Naomi can take solace in the fact that today, she clearly outplayed Serena and deserved to win. Nothing Serena could have done would have prevented the straight set victory she so richly earned. I am particularly impressed in how she remained composed and focused at the end of the second set, despite all the drama. Impressive for a 20 year old, first time slam finalist.
Another Kyrgios behaving badly.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/863758/Rafael-Nadal-Nick-Kyrgios-point-penalty-China-Open
You think McEnroe got that kind of coverage after his rants?
He certainly did - it was just that we didn’t have 24/7 news channels or the internet to get the story out immediately as it was happening.
His rants were so legendary, in fact, that there isn’t a person alive now who doesn’t know, “you cannot be serious”.
He also got defaulted once in a match at the AO due to his behavior on court.
http://tennis-buzz.com/january-21-1990-john-mcenroe-defaulted-at-the-australian-open/
Well then we disagree. I think this is all about Serena being who she is and the establishment feeling most uncomfortable with it.
No, this is who she is.
https://www.sport24.co.za/Tennis/USOpen/serena-williams-list-us-open-implosions-20180909
Attempt to change dynamics of the losing match by starting usual mess and mobilizing the crowd failed.
It is clear that ITF, ATP and WTA are on the quest to clean up professional tennis. No delays before serves, no screaming on every shot and no racket and empire abuse. Empires who are employees of these organizations just follow instructions. If a player does not like this then he/she can retire.
None of us know (I don’t think!) Serena personally to know who she is 24/7. We see glimpses of her on the court or in the news/social media.
Credit where credit is due to anyone who has uber tennis knowledge to know complete histories and examples. Some of you have the court time and viewing time to surpass me for sure!
But truth also is, there is a huge number of people - just like any other news story - who are casual watchers of an event - and through that event they form an opinion - which they are allowed to have - on how they saw the outcome of a situation like this match. Honestly, it is that group of people- the casual watcher - who really may either develop a good taste or bad taste for how things turned out. They may see Serena’s actions as much more than the game of tennis- unlike someone who might be a tennis “expert” - and more about the emotional surface of what occurred.
I think the tennis federation/rule makers need to make a list of disparaging words. I just really don’t think that “thief” is worthy of penalty. Not after the words I have witnessed on courts for decades.
If the tennis governing bodies want to eliminate coaching during the matches at the majors, they need to prohibit coaches from being in the stands. Serena’s coach is far from the only one to use hand signals or even verbal instructions while the match is being played.
It’s unfortunate that this incident tainted the final. Naomi deserved to celebrate her win like other champions have.
“I think the tennis federation/rule makers need to make a list of disparaging words. I just really don’t think that “thief” is worthy of penalty. Not after the words I have witnessed on courts for decades.”
The rule states it’s verbal abuse if player accuses umpire of “dishonesty.” Thief and liar, which she called the umpire several times, are accusations of dishonesty. Medevev throwing coins at the umpire was also an accusation of dishonesty, but he did it after the match was over so instead of a code violation he only got fined.
Also, after Ramos gave the code violation for coaching - Serena actually said to the umpire that Patrick was only giving her a “thumbs up.” So she definitely saw him. Only thing is it wasn’t a thumbs up, it was the signal to go to net. And she actually started to go to the net on several points in that game.
Good article in support of Carlos Ramos from a long time umpire.
“None of us know (I don’t think!) Serena personally to know who she is 24/7. We see glimpses of her on the court or in the news/social media.”
You can watch her reality show. There’s a lot I admire about her - tenacity, drive, strength, intelligence - but she’s a bit of a prima donna, too.
That’s an excellent article you posted above, @emilybee.
Article on tennis world supporting Serena:
BTW, I don’t know if I qualify as an expert in tennis. But I did marry into a tennis family, where 3 siblings played as the number one man on 3 different Div 1 schools, two of them top tennis schools. One was an All American. One went pro for a while. In their youth, all played against – and even won against – players who later went pro and who everyone on this thread has heard about and watched on TV.
And all agree that while Serena’s behavior is often questionable, it’s undeniable that men and women are judged very differently in tennis, and that men have gotten away with oncourt behavior far worse than Serena’s outbursts.
It’s sad that Osaka’s amazing victory over Serena is overshadowed by this controversy. But there’s reason to discuss what happened to Serena yesterday, and why.
Here’s the same umpire (Ramos) not assessing a penalty on Kyrgios for dropping the f-bomb and using unprintable profanity and accusing the umpire of “unbelievable bias”.
I don’t know if Ramos is guilty of sexism, but when application of rules is arbitrary and capricious, then you open yourself up to those charges.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/tennis/2016/05/22/nick-kyrgios-french-open/
I am not an expert, although I have played and been a fan for 50 years. In my opinion there is way too much gray area for the coaching rule to be called at such a critical time in such a critical match. If he really saw it he could have given a warning rather than a violation. I would be interested to see how often it was called over the two week tournament. Yes she broke her racquet so I agree that was a violation, although in my opinion I think they should be able to break their racquets if they want to. Throw them, no, break them, sure. And then the game violation was ridiculous. Yes she lost her cool but she didn’t swear and she didn’t threaten him. Again, try to de-escalate the situation, ignore it, or give a warning. Yes Serena could have handled the situation better, but if I am being honest, in the heat of the moment, I doubt I would have.
I still maintain that her demeanor was insulting to the umpire. I would be aghast if my tennis-playing children addressed a coach/line judge in that manner.
It does appear to me that many people are supporting Serena for some political correctness reasons - and I am usually able to see the actual admirable reason behind most things labeled “PC.” But I just can’t in this instance.
@emilybee has provided instances of male players being penalized. There are thousands of calls made in a tennis match and thousands of instances where a judge or umpire can make a call that is questionable, therefore it will be easy to find instances of things that appear to slide etc.
I do wish the umpire had told her to calm down or he would take a game from her - that may have helped defuse the situation a little. But the rules are the rules. She could have pleaded her case in a less obnoxious way and then followed up afterward with evidence supporting her claims. But to berate and accuse the umpire of being a thief - just not very sportsmanlike IMHO.
To this casual (male) observer of tennis, the application of rules seems inconsistent in the men’s and women’s games.
“Yes Serena could have handled the situation better, but if I am being honest, in the heat of the moment, I doubt I would have.”
@tx5athome – it was only the final of the US Open during her up-and-down return to tennis after a medically and emotionally problematic childbirth. So, no stress there, and no heat in that moment!
“I am not an expert, although I have played and been a fan for 50 years. In my opinion there is way too much gray area for the coaching rule to be called at such a critical time in such a critical match. If he really saw it he could have given a warning rather than a violation.”
The coaching was a warning. The violations were the subsequent acts - breaking a racquet (that’s automatic) and calling the ump names.
"Yes she broke her racquet so I agree that was a violation, although in my opinion I think they should be able to break their racquets if they want to. Throw them, no, break them, sure. "
Breaking rackets can be potentially dangerous for line refs, ball “boys”, spectators in the front. There’s a reason for the rule that extends beyond decorum.
Do posters here really think that folks would be as forgiving and understanding if Osaka or any other female player exhibited the same antics Serena did? I seriously doubt it.
They’re generally understanding and forgiving when men do it. Djokovic has had a few. All it takes for him to say “I just lost it mentally and got pissed off” and tennis fans shrug. BTW, a very similar situation happened just a couple of months ago with Djokovic having a melt down during a match against a young Frenchman. Did that make headlines? How much did we discuss about his sportmanship here?