Serena Williams is a champion – in tennis and in life. She is one of the best, if not the best, athletes to ever grace us with their presence. Her success as a tennis player, an inspiring mother and an independent woman makes her an idol to people, specially young women, all over the the world.
One of such young women is Naomi Osaka. The 23-year-old has grown up watching Serena and idolised the 23-time grand slam champion.
That is one of the reasons which makes what happened at the US Open women’s singles final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka so deeply unfortunate.
It all started during the first set (which Osaka totally dominated and won) when chair umpire Carlos Ramos issued Williams a ‘coaching’ warning after her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou appeared to encourage her to approach the net more.
Williams was not happy with the warning and demanded an apology from Ramos. “I’ve never cheated in my life,” she repeatedly said.
Then, after losing her serve in the second set, Williams destroyed her racquet in frustration. She was given her second warning and docked a point for this.
This incensed Williams further and she kept asking Ramos to apologise. She said that Ramos will never officiate in her matches any more.
During a changeover, she added, “You’re a thief, too”.
Ramos then issued a verbal abuse penalty to Williams. As it was her third strike, she was penalised a full game. Serena’s first responce was “Are you kidding me?”
Williams, trying hard to control her tears, turned to match official to complain. But the decisions and penalties were correct and stood.
She even blamed the whole thing on her being a woman, saying: “You know how many other men do things. … there are a lot of men who say a lot of things, and because they are men, nothing happens to them.”
Crowd too joined in support of Serena booing the chair umpire and officials – not realising the exchanges taking place.
Unfair to Osaka
Osaka, meanwhile remained in the background almost forgotten, even after playing much superior tennis and leading the match 6-2, 4-3. The game penalty gave her a 5-3 lead and she kept her cool to win 6-2, 6-4.
However, the whole drama took away from what should have been a glorious day for Osaka who defeated her idol at one of biggest stages in the sports.
In the post-match trophy presentation, Osaka was in tears while Williams comforted her. As the crowd continued to boo, Williams attempted to defuse the awkwardness at the ceremony and ask them to stop booing and cheer for Osaka.
The crowd should have been cheering for Osaka anyway. She had totally decimated Serena in the match and deserved the respect.
But the crowd was too bust caring for Serena’s “fight” to acknowledge Osaka’s.
Osaka had to apologise for winning the way she did. She didn’t need too.
Umpire’s fault?
Many fans blamed the umpire for taking all this away from Osaka. In their opinion, he was just ‘a man with a massive ego’ who not only robbed Serena off a game but Osaka off her glory too.
However, one must not forget that Ramos did nothing wrong here. He can be accused of being ‘too hard’ or ‘tactless’ but not guilty of any malice.
When he gave Serena a ‘coaching’ warning, he was not accusing Williams of cheating at all. Accusing a coach of cheating is not accusing a player, the player gets the warning as he is on court but it the coaches’ conduct that is being called out.
Patrick Mouratoglou would later admit to ‘coaching’ Serena but said that it happened all the time all the matches. Of course, Serena is a player who has never needed ‘coaching’ on court during her career.
However, the point is that the umpire was well within his rights to issue the warning.
Serena should have taken the warning and moved on. Umpires make wrong calls all the time. Players get upset all the time. Big players move on and win the next point, the next game, the next set and the match.
Serena’s reaction, on the other hand, was of a player who was emotionally upset. She was losing and losing badly. Serena was visibly angry at herself and everything else during the first set when she kept making huge mistakes.
Osaka was racing away with the match and Serena was frustrated. However, she took her frustration out at the wrong person and place.
The chair umpire could have handled the matter in a better manner. He could have reasoned with her, shown more patience and calmed the whole situation down. Instead, he handed out more penalties, which were all fair, to her.
Serena was very emotional throughtout the match and it showed in her reactions.
But if she was worried about setting a great example for her kid, calling an umpire ‘a thief’ is not the best one.
Feminism much!
Interestingly, the whole affair soon turned into a debate about women – or even more specifically black women – power.
After the match Serena said that she is going to continue to fight for women to express themselves emotionally. “Maybe it didn’t work out for me, but it’s going to work out for the next person,” she said.
Serena also questioned the penalty asking if there is equal punishment scrutiny for the public display of male emotion and aggression in sports.
Serena Williams in action
Fair point.
So her logic is – if male players do something wrong, why shouldn’t women.
And what kind of emotional expression she is talking about here.
Like she did in US Open 2009 when she shouted at a linejudge for making a call against her and said “I’m going to take this ball and shove it down your ******* throat”.
Or trying to hinder her opponent by yelling “come on” mid-shot in US Open 2010.
Or her question to a chair umpire, “Are you the one who screwed me over last time?”
Truth is, Serena Williams behaved like a sore loser on this day. She may be a role model for being a great mother, a courageous women and the greatest female athlete of her generation – but her behaviour during the US Open final was not worthy of a champion.
Most of all, it was not fair to a 20-year-old woman who showed those champion-like qualities during the match and after.
Naomi Osaka profoundly outplayed a 23-time Grand Slam champion and she truly deserved a better version of her childhood idol.
