Thursday, September 13, 2018

Serena Williams Lacks Maturity in US Open Final Loss

By now, everyone has heard about it. In Serena Williams' 6-2, 6-4 loss to Naomi Osaka in the US Open Final, Serena completely lost control of her emotions. But, before we get to that, let me stop to praise Naomi Osaka on an amazing tournament. It was quite apparent, after beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-0, 6-0 in the Third Round before taking out the in-form Aryna Sablenka in the Fourth Round that Osaka had completely reversed her prior poor US Open Series results.

In the Final, Osaka played magnificently. She completely dominated the first set, breaking Serena in two of her first three service games, and serving out the set. And she didn't let getting down a break in the second set, 3-1, phase her either. Osaka immediately broke back before breaking again. And with intense pressure serving for the tournament at *5-4 in the second set, Osaka played a very good game to win the tournament. Osaka was absolutely incredible and thoroughly deserved her victory. So, congrats to her on becoming a major champion!

Now, let's turn our attention to the issues between Serena Williams and the chair umpire for the match, Carlos Ramos. I will give a short rundown of what happened, but since by now, you probably know what happened already, I'll keep this section of the article brief. Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglu, was caught coaching in the stands by Ramos, seemingly urging Serena to push forward towards the net. Serena was upset with Ramos' insinuation that she was cheating and said her coach was only giving her a thumbs' up.

After getting broken-back in the second set, Serena smashed her racquet, which was a point penalty. Then, a little later, Serena got called for a game penalty after pointing at the umpire, and in an angry tirade, calling him both a "thief" and a "liar". The match's trophy ceremony was filled with boos, until Serena stepped in and calmed things down. Serena, during the course of the match, accused the chair umpire of sexism, demanded an apology from Ramos, and mentioned her daughter in regards to her not being a cheater.

So, let's unpack this situation, because there is a lot to talk about. I believe that all three penalties were completely warranted. The first penalty, Patrick admitted to in an interview with Pam Shriver after the match, but justified it by saying that everyone does it. That doesn't make it, not-against the rules, though, and the chair umpire has full-discretion to call coaching if she/he sees it. And it doesn't matter if Serena even saw the coaching, the fact that Mouratoglu was making that gesture with his hands is enough for a warning, whether Serena wanted the coaching, and/or saw the coaching, or not.

So, Serena shouldn't have gotten so offended when called for the coaching warning, as the warning had nothing to do with her actions. The coaching had everything to do with her coach's actions. And Mouratoglu can claim that others coach, as well, that doesn't matter. The fact is, it is against the rules, and he got caught, end of story. Instead of apologizing to Serena in the post-match interview, he made excuses, even after admitting fault.

But, where Serena went wrong was taking the warning so personally, even though it was just that, a warning, and it would take something else for her to get penalized. But, by becoming so emotionally charged following the warning, she was giving herself a greater chance of a second penalty, because her emotions were so high.

And sure enough, she smashed her racquet after getting broken back to *2-3 in the second set, which is an automatic warning. And the second warning is a point penalty. I don't know if Serena thought that Ramos had rescinded the first warning, but her reaction to the point penalty was absolutely ridiculous. Obviously smashing a racquet is a warning, that's about the easiest call for umpires in tennis. And it was clear that Mouratoglu was attempting to coach Serena, even if Serena only felt like he was giving her a thumbs' up. So, I'm not sure where the confusion is with Serena. An umpire is obviously not going to reverse a coaching penalty, even if he acknowledges that you didn't cheat.

Because a coach giving a hand signal doesn't mean the player is cheating anyways. Getting a coaching violation doesn't mean the player was cheating, so the coaching warning can still stand, even if the umpire confirms with the player that she wasn't cheating. This could have been where Serena's confusion was. Or maybe it was a lack of understanding of the rules. Maybe Serena didn't realize a second warning was a point penalty? This seems less likely.

Serena went on an angry tirade against Ramos, calling him a "liar" and a "thief" in the process. It certainly felt like a personal attack on Ramos' character, and Ramos was completely in the right for issuing a third warning, which is equivalent to a game penalty. This put Osaka up *5-3 anyways. As a side note, notice that Osaka was up a set and a break anyways when the penalty occurred, so we can say with confidence that Osaka was in a great position to win before the game penalty.

Serena called the umpire sexist and gave a spiel after the match about her battle for the rights of women, which just seems to be taking the situation way out of context. Serena's argument was that men get away with what she got penalized for all of the time. First off, Serena gave no evidence for her claim that men get away what she got penalized, it just seemed like a generalized claim to stir the pot. Sure, I see men and other women tennis players getting a warning for breaking the rules, but the reason we see very few game penalties is because most players know they can't act out much after their first warning, as it would hurt their chances of winning the match.

Second, by calling the umpire "liar" and "thief", she personalized the attack against the umpire. I would argue even cursing isn't so bad, so long as it isn't a personal attack on the umpire. But, as soon as you make the attack personal against the umpire, it makes what you're saying much worse, whether you are using profanity or not.

Serena needed to accept her coaching penalty with grace, but perhaps bothered with the way the match was going, decided to fight back. And after the racquet smash, possibly still bothered by the course of the match, she decided to get personal with the umpire, questioning his integrity. And to question the integrity of someone with as much integrity as Carlos Ramos is extremely insulting. I'm confident that Ramos was extremely hurt by what Serena said, and was right in calling for her third violation.

I think that claiming sexism in this case trivializes actual sexism, and this is upsetting to me. Because there is real sexism occurring in our society that needs to stop, but when Serena just randomly claims sexism in this case, it kind of makes sexism seem like a trivial thing in society, a way of justifying someone's bad behavior as opposed to the reality of it being an injustice that needs to change. So, personally, that hurts me.

So, to be quite honest, I think Serena Williams needs to mature a little. Her reactions to getting penalized in the US Open Final were, quite frankly, shocking, and completely derailed her chance for another US Open crown. Yes, Patrick shouldn't have gave the hand signal and should not have claimed that everyone does it after the match, but Serena has to react to the situation better than she did.

As Epictetus said, "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." And for Serena Williams, she reacted to the situation in a very immature manner.

And, at the end of the day, it was Naomi Osaka, not Serena Williams, holding the winner's trophy.