Slider image by Nina Schultz.
On Sept. 8 the US Open, a tennis tournament for the grand slam trophy, took place, leaving the crowd shocked. One of the players this year was Serena Williams, a professional, renowned tennis player with an array of trophies and awards. This year, her opponent in the finals was Naomi Osaka, who beat Williams in the match. But people are not talking about the victory of Osaka, they’re talking about Williams.
The uproar about the US open began during the second set of the tennis match. Carlos Ramos, the umpire of the game, gave Williams a warning for being illicitly coached during the match. Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, was accused of nodding and giving her hand signals. Williams then approached the umpire and claimed that Mouratoglou was not coaching. Rather, he was cheering her on. Williams also told the umpire that “I don’t cheat to win. I’d rather lose.”
When Williams failed to get the ball over the net, out of anger she threw her racquet on the ground, causing it to bend. Ramos then issued her another violation for racquet abuse. Because this was Williams’ second violation, the umpire penalized her by taking away a point, and she was furious. She insisted that Ramos “owes [her] an apology”, and declared that she never received coaching, and therefore did not deserve her first violation.
Williams, continued to reprimand Ramos and accused him of being a “thief” and “stealing” a point from her. Following this statement, Ramos issued a third violation, this one being for verbal abuse. Because this was Williams’ third violation, Osaka was awarded the next match by default.
Not only was this entire match filled with violations called against Williams, it also caused a lot of controversy. Some people are accusing Ramos of being sexist, including Williams. She expressed that “for me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark.”
Billie Jean King, a four time U.S open champion, also sides with Williams. King agreed with Williams, saying that “ultimately, a woman was penalized for standing up for herself. A woman faced down sexism, and the match went on.”
Williams is also receiving backlash for the her actions. An anonymous umpire stated, “[Ramos] was thrown to the wolves for simply doing his job and was not willing to be abused for it”. Many other people have similar thoughts. ”I think Serena overreacted, I think that outburst was unwarranted” said Tebogo, a caller from radio station 702.
Anna Clauer, a sophomore at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, watched the US Open. Clauer thinks that Williams did deserve her first two violations, but that Williams did not need to escalate the situation by yelling at Ramos. When it comes to the accusations of Ramos being sexist, Clauer expresses that “when it comes down to it, I don’t think it was sexist.” However, Clauer does think that “if [Williams] had been a man, [Ramos] might have not given her a violation”.
During the the trophy ceremony, the crowd was roaring with boos. Osaka was in tears, and Williams turned to her and whispered something in her ear. Osaka appeared on Ellen Degeneres’ talk show and revealed what Williams told her; Williams told Osaka that “she was proud of me and that I should know that the crowd wasn’t booing at me”. Osaka also admits that she thought the crowd was “booing at me ’cause I couldn’t tell what was going on” and it was “a little bit stressful.”
When it comes down to it,Williams has had her times in glory when she has won her tournaments, but many feel that Osaka’s opportunity to be in the spotlight was striped away from her.
