This past weekend, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams faced each other in the final at the US Open. Williams was trying to her her record 24th Grand Slam title.
Osaka won the first set, despite being less experienced, 16 years younger, and in her first Grand Slam final. In the second set, umpire Carlos Ramon saw Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou making hand signals, which Ramon interpreted as coaching signals. He called a code violation for coaching. Williams then came over to Ramon and said “I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose. I’m just letting you know.” During the next changeover, Ramon and Williams had a conversation, with Williams stating again that she had not been coached.
In the second set, Williams hit the ball into the net. She threw down her racket and it broke. She received a point penalty for that.
Williams walked over to Ramon and said “This is unbelievable, every time I play here I have problems.” In the past years at this event, she has had several bad calls made against her. She grew increasingly frustrated at Ramon, insisting that she did not cheat. She told Ramon, “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 and I have never cheated.”
Later in the match, she told Ramon “And you stole a point from me, you’re a thief, too.” This led to Roman issuing a third violation, because of verbal abuse. Rules state that the third violation leads to a loss of that game.
A few other referees and officials came down to have a discussion with Ramon and Williams. Williams said, “This is not fair. There’s a lot of men out here that have said a lot of things, but if they’re men, that doesn’t happen to them.”
Still, none of the violations were changed. Osaka ended up being the first Grand Slam champion from Japan.
At the post match news conference, Williams elaborated on her views about sexism on the court and women’s equality. She said that she will fight this sexism and the gender based double standard.
Overall, she was fined $17,000 in that one match: $10,000 for verbal abuse, which she called the ref a thief, $4,000 for coaching in the middle of the match, and $3,000 for breaking her racket. Williams believed that Ramon treated her differently than he would treat a male player.
Tennis has a history of doing so. Just last month, Alizé Cornet accidently put her shirt on backwards. She briefly changed, but was given a warning for unsortmnalike conduct. However, men have been seen changing their shirts numerous times with no violation, and even sitting shirtless for periods of time. Cornet’s warning led to huge coverage by the media. Many criticized the US Open for being sexist. The US Open issued a statement apologizing, and then changed the rules so that going forward, everyone would be able to change their shirt in their chair.
