Definitely a big takeaway. That and the game penalty may have cost Serena a championship at the very end of her career. Those are the really valuable ones, too.
I say “may have cost her” carefully, because Osaka played great tennis and was often clearly the better player in the match. Great serve.
I think Osaka would’ve won regardless. She just outplayed Serena (as well as outclassed her).
Serena’s poor conduct aside, Osaka deserved to win.
Great piece by the failing NYTs. 
And it wasn’t even the first time Osaka beat her. Williams probably still had that loss eating at her.
Let’s recall that this wasn’t Osaka’s first victory over Williams — she beat Williams back in March, causing a hiccup in that great comeback narrative.
Great players often start playing up towards the end of their careers. A refusal to accept their decline.
I don’t really buy the sexism excuse Williams and her supporters are trotting out. The umpire is known to be a stickler for the rules, and he followed the rules to the letter. I think he’d have done the same if Williams were a top male player. I’m also not too happy with the argument that top players of either gender should receive preferential treatment when they throw a tantrum.
Her coach cheated and then she lost her shit. If she wants to complain to anyone it should be him.
the sexism and the racist cards; thrown out on the playing field, because then the person receiving them has to (I wouldn’t) explain that he/she is NOT sexist or racist. A cheap trick, nothing exceptional, and shows lack of originality in any argument.
That’s the key word there: “narrative.”
Enough with the media trying to build “narratives” around sports personalities like Serena and Tiger Woods and Lebron James and so on. Let sports be sports and let them rise and fall as their talents dictate; not their egos, and not their little helpers and minions in the media and on Twitter.
My question is, does a player of her caliber and experience need any coaching from the player’s box? Does she not have seen anything in her career to know what she’s supposed to do?
More psychological support than anything else I imagine. But I’m somewhat sympathetic to Serina in this circumstance. One set down, fighting to get back in the game and suddenly the umpire is citing some bullshit rule at one of the most critical points in the finals of the US open. I can see how that might get in your head at a time where you have enough distractions and are trying your hardest to get in the zone.
That’s not to say Serina handled it well at all, but it’s easy for an armchair critic to say that sort of thing. They would say the same of John Mcenroe, “chalk flew up man”, go back and look at the replay and really chalk flew up. Some people dont react well to stupid bullshit, I can relate to that.
The umpire has form. He’s pissed off Nadal (repeated slow play warnings), Djokovic (racket abuse - but he let his opponent off for the same), and Murray for calling him stupid.
He’s clearly overly officious and perhaps a bit of a grandstander. I don’t think what he did to Williams was down to sexism or racism, though. A lot of the top players simply aren’t used to not getting their own way.
Tell me this is not the best nine minutes you will spend today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2AH5bi2ao4
What a treat to watch. : )
Guy
She’s very colorful, especially when compared to some of those bland Eastern Europeans. Always hard to remember those names ending with _ova.
Those interviews are hilarious. She has this thing where she’s kind of like totally low energy and stuff and then she hits you with a cracker, totally unexpected, like, you know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx_wybs9-vc
She lost the argument turning to sexism. The official is known to be over zealous and does the same thing to big name male players. I got no problem if she just said he was shit and needs to step aside because no ones there to watch him. But it’s bs she went straight to him being sexist.
And as an athlete, we don’t only prepare for the opponent, we prepare for the weather, the field, and especially the official/referees:umpires!!! No way she didn’t know he was like that coming in!
I feel that calling an official an -ist is a very serious accusation. None of her supporters have provided evidence of bias on the part of the umpire, they’ve only made general comments along the lines of “male players always get away with this sort of behaviour, why can’t we?”.
If I were the umpire in question I’d be considering legal action for slander.
The umpire in question seems to have a history of making controversial calls, at least 4 examples were used by those arguing he does this to men as well, although the logic seemed to be he is a strict umpire.
The cynic in me thinks if he has a history of making controversial calls in high profile games he could be a corrupt umpire. Happens all too often in other sports, why not tennis too?
I’m struggling to see how the umpire doing everything by the book could be corruption. The whole Williams defence is that the umpire was sexist in following the rules. She expected to be exempt because, without any evidence, if she were a top male player she would have been.
The fact is the official acted completely in the confines of the rules and it was upheld by his bosses on top. Not only was the ruling upheld, they fined her as well on top of that. End of story, she needs to step aside and let Osaka have her moment.
I don’t think he’s ever been accused of corruption, although the majors (at the least) hopefully take proactive measures to monitor evidence of sudden spikes in wealth of their officials.
I do suspect that the US Open purposely hired Ramos for the womens Championship match, though. It’s likely they felt the blowback from her two previous meltdowns were enough, and decided to take no chances on letting her - or anyone else - get out of hand this year. The super rich New Yorkers who ran the United States National Championships at Forest Hills (the precursor to the US Open) were not known for reacting well to even a hint of controversy.
How does “being strict” = corrupt? Is that more Serena logic?
He’d be corrupt if he purposely overlooked or waved away flagrant cheating and rule breaking. Rather, he’s a damn good enforcer.