FLUSHING MEADOWS – What a mess Serena Williams made! Unreal! Williams’ outbursts during this year’s US Open final were extremely disappointing, especially coming from a player with her experience. Since becoming a mother last year, Williams has been very open and vocal about how she wants to be a role-model for her daughter Alexis Olympia. Serena’s behavior during the championship match and her words in her post-match press conference – during which she tried to act like a defender of women’s rights claiming that chair umpire Carlos Ramos would have never inflicted such warnings and penalties on a male player – certainly raised many eyebrows.
First and foremost, we must give credit where credit is due. Naomi Osaka deserved to win her first Grand Slam title against her idol, who is 16 years and 20 days older than she is. The Japanese rising star dominated the first set and kept her composure in the second when Serena was kicking and screaming after receiving three unquestionable warnings from the chair umpire. Serena first received a warning for coaching in the second game of the second set, as Ramos saw Serena’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou giving her signals from the stands. After the incident occurred, Mouratouglou couldn’t deny that he was trying to coach his player and publicly admitted it on Twitter. Was it necessary to do it? His statement certainly surprised Serena, who is probably livid with him. Will he now get fired?
Perhaps when Serena watches the video of the match, she will see how Mouratoglou was clearly trying to give her signals about moving forward in the court and attacking. Up until that point in the match, Williams was being outplayed from the baseline by her younger opponent. Serena said that she wasn’t even looking at her coach when the incident happened, but it is fair to say that Patrick did try to coach her. Perhaps Carlos Ramos was a little too strict in applying the rule to the letter, as both Williams’ sisters don’t even use on-court coaching in regular tour events where players are allowed to receive coaching visits during the match. It was probably a spontaneous initiative of Mouratoglou, who sometimes likes to be at the center of attention. Truth be told, he simply did what many coaches do in different ways and with different signals. He later claimed that all the coaches use signals to advise their players during matches and never get punished, including Toni Nadal.
As soon as Serena received the warning for coaching, she started with her first outburst towards the chair umpire: “I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose. I want you to know that”. She also asked him to remove the violation from her conduct, but Ramos was far from being intimidated by her words. It never happened that a chair umpire would give a warning to a player and then remove it. It is the chair umpire’s job to apply the rules and make sure that players respect them.
Whether Serena saw Patrick’s signal or not, the first incident of the match actually gave her an energy boost as she certainly started to move forward and play more aggressive. Osaka started showing a few nerves and Williams jumped to a 3-1 lead in the second set, while Arthur Ashe Stadium almost turned into a jungle with fans cheering and screaming for Serena.
The following game proved to be a disaster for Williams, as she double faulted twice and missed an easy backhand. Serena furiously smashed and broke her racquet, which triggered a second warning from the umpire: This time it was for racquet abuse. Since this was Williams’ second violation, it resulted into a penalty point. As Osaka was walking back to the service line, the chair umpire announced 15-0. Many spectators seemed to be confused about what happened. Serena started screaming at the umpire again: “You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life. I have a daughter and I stand for what’s right for her. I’ve never cheated, and you owe me an apology. You will never do another one of my matches”. Then she became even more aggressive towards him: “You are a liar and now you stole a point from me. You’re a thief”. At that point, Carlos Ramos issued a third warning towards Williams for word abuse, which resulted in a game penalty. Serena completely lost her mind as the crowd was loudly booing the chair umpire. The noise level was insane. Serena then called the referee Brian Earlie and the supervisor Donna Kelso, but she accomplished very little. Both the referee and supervisor could only stand by the umpire’s decisions.
Down 5-3, Serena managed to regroup and hold her serve, forcing Osaka to serve out the match. It was very remarkable how the young Japanese was able to keep her focus in the middle of such bizarre events, closing out the match with a great serve that Williams couldn’t get back.
“The spectators were making so much noise that I didn’t hear any of the conversations between Serena and the umpire. When the umpire announced the score at 5-3, I was a little confused, but I kept telling myself to stay focused. She is such a great champion and I thought that she could have come back into the match at any time”, Osaka said in her post-match press conference.
Williams accused Ramos of sexism while talking to the press after the match. Quite frankly, those accusations were ridiculous and inappropriate, and should have not been acknowledged by the press. Instead, a few idiots applauded Williams for her words.
Even if I want to give credit to Serena for regrouping and controlling her emotions during the trophy presentation, I don’t agree with her behavior. Perhaps the chair umpire was a little too strict when he gave her the first warning, but the second and third were absolutely on point. Serena lost her cool for the third time at the US Open after her previous incidents with chair umpires in the 2011 final against Stosur and the 2009 semifinal against Kim Clijsters. The best player on the court wasn’t Serena Williams, it was Naomi Osaka.
Osaka played with the class of a true champion. At 20 years of age, it is safe to say that she will win many more titles in the future. She has a great personality on and off the court and a remarkable sense of humor.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
