MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE 2018 U.S. OPEN LADIES FINAL BY CRAIG CIGNARELLI

Written by: Staff on 9th September 2018

MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE 2018 U.S. OPEN LADIES FINAL BY CRAIG CIGNARELLI

epa07007090 Serena Williams of the US holds up the runner up trophy after losing to Naomi Osaka of Japan in the women's final on the thirteenth day of the US Open Tennis Championships the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 08 September 2018. The US Open runs from 27 August through 09 September. EPA-EFE/JUSTIN LANE |

Serena Williams of the US holds up the runner up trophy after losing to Naomi Osaka of Japan in the women’s final on the thirteenth day of the US Open Tennis Championships the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 08 September 2018. The US Open runs from 27 August through 09 September. EPA-EFE/JUSTIN LANE

In last night’s women’s U.S. OPEN final, Naomi Osaka outplayed Serena Williams to win her first Slam. Today’s headlines, however, provide various perspectives on the matches’ other fireworks. Down 4-3, umpire Carlos Ramos penalized Serena one game for verbal abuse, giving Osaka an insurmountable 5-3 lead. Some are calling Ramos, sexist and unprofessional. Others say Serena Williams is an entitled diva. So lets delve a little deeper to understand what really happened.

Osaka won the first set 6-2. Early in the second, Ramos warned Serena for a coaching violation. (coaching is not legal in tennis). Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou was clearly signaling to his player. Serena claims she did not see it, and after looking at the tape, that may be true. The question everyone seems to be debating is whether “coaching” occurred if the player did not see it. Presumably unaware of her coaches’ actions, Serena pointed a finger at Ramos and approached the chair to claim, “I am not a cheater. I’d rather lose than cheat.” Serena’s lack of awareness set the foundation for the rest of the events.

A few games later, Serena smashed a racquet in anger. According to the tennis code, Ramos sanctioned her again, this time taking away a point for her second violation. When Serena sat down in her chair before the change of ends, she launched into a tirade on Ramos.

“I didn’t get coaching, I don’t cheat! I didn’t get coaching. How can you say that? You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life! You are attacking my character. You will never ever, ever be on another court of mine as long as you live. You stole a point from me. You’re a thief, too.”

Ramos then gave her a “verbal abuse” violation which came with a one-game penalty. Serena responded with “There are men out here that do a lot worse but because I’m a woman, because I’m a woman you’re going to take this away from me? That is not right.”

From Serena’s perspective, the umpire was wrong. To her knowledge, there was no coaching, she shouldn’t have received a warning, and her assault on the umpire was justified because he made an inappropriate call against her. Without knowing what her coach had done, she felt she’d been wronged.

From Ramos’ perspective, he gave a player a warning for coaching and then he gave a racquet abuse violation. Both were justified. Then, as he sat in his chair, Serena began attacking him for no apparent reason. Once again, “You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life! You are attacking my character. You will never ever, ever be on another court of mine as long as you live. You stole a point from me. You’re a thief, too.” Without knowing Serena wasn’t aware whet her coach had done, Serena’s actions appeared totally unjustified.

So, who is to blame? A few moments after the match, commentator Pam Shriver approached Serena’s coach and asked the question, “Were you coaching?” Mouratoglou responded, “I’m honest, I was coaching. I mean I don’t think she looked at me so that’s why she didn’t even think I was, but I was like 100 percent of the coaches on [sic] 100 percent of the matches.”

What happens next truly matters. Given the circumstances (Ramos was unaware that Serena hadn’t seen her coach), Ramos acted exactly as he should have. Serena’s verbal assault made no sense in that moment and he was right in issuing a code violation. Though Serena felt justified in the moment (she was unaware of her coach’s actions), now that she knows what her coach did, Serena should apologize to Ramos for her accusations.

Thanks to trailblazers like Billie Jean King, tennis has made serious progress in recent years. Terms like “sexist” and “entitled” should be left in the ball shed. It is truly sad such a major event could be tainted by a misunderstanding. Osaka deserved better. Ramos deserved better. Serena deserved to let her talent and fight be the only tools which gave her a shot at victory. And world-class coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, continues to deserve the blame for injecting himself into a match, which should have been left up to his player.