I'm not surprised, but still annoyed, at the coverage that Williams' meltdown at the US Open finals has garnered. To recap, she was (correctly) given a warning for coaching when her coach made hand signals from his seat. After losing the next game she flipped out and smashed her tennis racquet on the ground. That earned her a point deduction. This was followed by an extraordinary outburst in which she called the umpire a thief, besmirched his character, threatened him that he would never work again, and accused him of blatant sexism. She then turned on the waterworks and played the victim. Later at a press conference, instead of apologising for her outburst, she said she was fighting for women's equality, and that even though she had been sorely abused it might work out for the next woman to follow in her steps.
You can see video of the outburst part of Serena's performance here.
Let's look at the facts. Umpire Carlos Ramos did everything by the book. He was evenhanded in his treatment, and consulted with additional match officials who agreed with his approach.
Serena was correctly deducted a game after a third violation. The ITA entirely agreed with Ramos after the match and levied a $17k fine on Serena.
Serena is a great player but she is not good at losing. As someone who watches plenty of tennis, I've often see her become agitated and aggressive when she is on the back foot. That said, it's part of her strength of character that she can fight back so aggressively and has managed to haul back many a match from a losing position. But that has nothing to do with her temper tantrum at the US Open, which was ugly and worthy of a three year old. She was getting completely outplayed by a 20 year old and she let it get to her. By the way, she also came close to ruining the event for the new champion too.
But none of that is what really bugs me. Anyone can have a bad day, even a great like Williams. What really bugs me is the women's tennis association coming out in support of her, along with -- among others -- Billie Jean King and Sue Barker. What bugs me is the BBC and other channels discussing the event as if there is anything open to interpretation. It bugs me when they bring on "experts" to discuss the sexism issue. It's pathetic. If a man came close to anything like Serena's performance he would be run off the court, and slaughtered in the media. And rightly so. Which reminds me -- Serena was dead wrong that "men get away with far worse things then women". The statistics show that men are penalised more than women for almost every type of code violation in tennis.
The bottom line is that people need to call it as it is -- Williams abused her status on the court and should be going on her knees to the ITA to apologise. She should be begging that umpire for forgiveness for trying to ruin his character. And she should be apologising to her fans for sinking so low. And the rest of the people backing her "because misogyny" should do the same. The most troubling aspect of this whole thing is that Serena only has to breathe the word "sexist" and suddenly she is some kind of martyress. I've even seen people speculating that she might have subjected to sexism before, as if that was some kind of excuse for the latest episode. Whereas in my eyes she has gone from great champion to lowlife thug in a matter of a few minutes, the same as any male champion who got up to the same shenanigans (not that it's conceivable that a male would do the same thing, if only because they'd know what was coming to them).
You can see video of the outburst part of Serena's performance here.
Let's look at the facts. Umpire Carlos Ramos did everything by the book. He was evenhanded in his treatment, and consulted with additional match officials who agreed with his approach.
Serena was correctly deducted a game after a third violation. The ITA entirely agreed with Ramos after the match and levied a $17k fine on Serena.
Serena is a great player but she is not good at losing. As someone who watches plenty of tennis, I've often see her become agitated and aggressive when she is on the back foot. That said, it's part of her strength of character that she can fight back so aggressively and has managed to haul back many a match from a losing position. But that has nothing to do with her temper tantrum at the US Open, which was ugly and worthy of a three year old. She was getting completely outplayed by a 20 year old and she let it get to her. By the way, she also came close to ruining the event for the new champion too.
But none of that is what really bugs me. Anyone can have a bad day, even a great like Williams. What really bugs me is the women's tennis association coming out in support of her, along with -- among others -- Billie Jean King and Sue Barker. What bugs me is the BBC and other channels discussing the event as if there is anything open to interpretation. It bugs me when they bring on "experts" to discuss the sexism issue. It's pathetic. If a man came close to anything like Serena's performance he would be run off the court, and slaughtered in the media. And rightly so. Which reminds me -- Serena was dead wrong that "men get away with far worse things then women". The statistics show that men are penalised more than women for almost every type of code violation in tennis.
The bottom line is that people need to call it as it is -- Williams abused her status on the court and should be going on her knees to the ITA to apologise. She should be begging that umpire for forgiveness for trying to ruin his character. And she should be apologising to her fans for sinking so low. And the rest of the people backing her "because misogyny" should do the same. The most troubling aspect of this whole thing is that Serena only has to breathe the word "sexist" and suddenly she is some kind of martyress. I've even seen people speculating that she might have subjected to sexism before, as if that was some kind of excuse for the latest episode. Whereas in my eyes she has gone from great champion to lowlife thug in a matter of a few minutes, the same as any male champion who got up to the same shenanigans (not that it's conceivable that a male would do the same thing, if only because they'd know what was coming to them).
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