Like many others, I have some… thoughts on the whole Serena Williams/Carlos Ramos/US Open Final kerfluffle. The universe (especially the Twitter-verse) is awash in incredibly simplistic takes. These fall into two very shouty camps. I’ll paraphrase briefly. Camp Ramos: “The umpire was completely right, Serena Williams was being a bully and a brat and how dare she sully the sanctity of our sport with her “thuggish” (subtext: black) behavior.” Camp Serena: “Carlos Ramos, the USTA and everybody is totally sexist and racist and DON’T YOU DARE criticize Serena because she is heroic and perfect and always right about everything.”
Frankly, the only person who got out of this unscathed is US Open Champ Naomi Osaka, who seems like a charming young woman who played breathtaking, dominant tennis for 2 weeks, and does not deserve to have her moment overshadowed by this.
Unlike many (most?) of the Hot-Takers mentioned above, I actually watched this disaster unfold in real time, not just reviewing the highlights. So let’s all take a breath, and realize that many things can be true at once. I’ll list out some of these true things here:
1. Serena Williams has been subject to a lot of racism. There are too many examples to list, but the recent dress code announcement by Roland Garros was the latest. She and her sister weren’t the first black tennis players, even in the modern game, but they are of a different stripe. They weren’t raised by well-off upper class parents like Chanda Rubin, or James Blake, or more recently, Sloane Stephens. They brought with them some cultural stuff that a sport like tennis did not accept without a lot of growing pains.
2. I’m not black. I can’t begin to understand what the Williams sisters’ success (and Serena’s in particular) mean to the broader black community. I am a woman of color, but I realize it’s not the same. I understand the instinctive defense of Serena when she seems to be under siege.
3. Carlos Ramos is an umpire with a solid reputation. He has officiated finals at all four Slams without incident. He is fair and professional, but does have a reputation for being strict. He has called time and coaching violations on Nadal, Djokovic, and many others. Saturday’s coaching violation shouldn’t have been totally unexpected.
4. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Earlier this tournament, Mohammed Lahyani caused an officiating stir of his own, when he climbed down from his umpire perch to give a pep talk to a tanking Nick Kyrgios. The uproar was instantaneous, and the consensus was that Lahyani was too accommodating with Kyrgios. He was subsequently relegated to outer court doubles matches. I’m sure Ramos was aware, and that may have factored into his decision to play it totally straight and not give any “leniency” to any player, no matter how famous.
5. By the letter of the law, Ramos was totally in the right. Whether you agree with these rules or not, coaching is illegal. Racquet abuse is illegal. Personal insults at the chair are illegal. Code violations accrue. Strike one, warning. Strike two, point penalty. Strike three, game penalty. And on and on. John McEnroe was once defaulted from the Australian Open for verbal abuse of an umpire. Serena is not new here. She knows the rules. Maybe better than most, since in 2009, she lost to Kim Clijsters by getting a code violation on a match point. (More on that later.)
6. As a practical matter, Ramos DID have some leeway in how he dealt with the situation. He could have given her a “soft” coaching warning, without it being an official code violation. During her extended rant, he could have warned her about an impending game penalty if she kept attacking his character. He could have, but he didn’t, and now here we are.
7. Serena’s character was not impugned by Ramos. First off, the behavior that was flagged was her coach’s. Said coach, Patrick Mourataglou, admitting he was coaching. Secondly, there’s no stigma attached (probably because, as Patrick noted, everyone does it). It’s like speeding. It’s illegal, it sucks to get caught, everybody does it, and nobody thinks you’re a horrible person because of it. For Serena to blow it up into a personal attack on her integrity and character is ridiculous.
8. Naomi Osaka’s win does not have an asterisk next to it, so people can just stop with that right now. Osaka outplayed Williams from the get. The reason Patrick was signaling in the first place was because Serena was getting beaten. The racquet smash was precipitated by Osaka breaking Serena’s serve. The extended rant at the chair was preceded by another service break. She was losing, and didn’t have an answer. The game penalty awarded to Osaka was on Osaka’s service game, which she had been holding fairly easily anyway.
9. Serena has a pattern at the US Open of blowing up at officials when she’s losing. See above, re: Clijsters in 2009. Also, she was very much losing the 2011 final to Sam Stosur when she was legitimately called for a hindrance, and she yelled at the umpire again. And again in 2018. Three times is a pattern, and it doesn’t reflect well on Serena.
10. Naomi Osaka handled the pressure like a boss. First off, she came out fearless and swinging away against a 23 time champ, her idol, and the ESPN narrative favorite. Later in the match, she handled Serena’s increasingly graceless behavior with her typical poker face. At 5-3, after a lengthy and emotional interruption in the match, she basically let Serena have her service game, and then calmly and coolly served out the match at 5-4, throwing in a couple of totally unreturnable serves for good measure. Those are the nerves of a future Hall of Famer.
11. There is much to admire about Serena Williams. As noted before, she’s dealt with a lot of ugly behavior from a lot of quarters over her years. She’s had two brushes with death and been remarkably candid about motherhood and childbirth. She works harder than anyone else on the tour. She’s a 23 time Grand Slam champ, not just through talent, but though grit and determination and hard work. She’s the toughest competitor on the tour. Even when she’s down, it’s often foolish to count her out. In recent years, her fiery persona has been tempered by maturity and little more graciousness and sportsmanship. Again, there’s a LOT to admire.
12. Little of this was on display on Saturday. Serena behaved appallingly. She stole the moment from Naomi Osaka, and made that match and the narrative about herself. Even her supposedly “gracious” moment, telling the crowd to stop booing, was followed by a “We’ll get through this.” Again, Serena, it’s not about you. A truly gracious speech would have noted Osaka’s brilliant play, and asked the crowd to cheer her win. Maybe it’s too much to ask for Serena to have her head together enough to do that, but asking the crowd to stop booing is pretty much the LEAST she could have done. (The one moment that touched me was the sisterly and protective way she put her arm around Osaka. I’m not made of stone, people.)
13. The Arthur Ashe crowd should feel shame. Even if you’re booing Carlos Ramos and the USTA, how do you think Osaka felt? It broke my heart when Osaka apologized for winning. She just won the biggest match of her life, and you people make her APOLOGIZE? I have never heard anyone apologize for winning a sports championship. No way. Naomi, you have nothing to apologize for. You deserve it, congratulations, and here’s to many more.
14. ESPN, Chase, Nike, the USTA, and all the other sponsors and Serena boosters should also feel shame. They contributed to this environment by making the whole two weeks all about Serena’s comeback/dominance/invincibility, etc. When that narrative was shattered by Osaka’s exceptional play, neither Serena nor the crowd could handle it emotionally.
15. The USTA and WTA’s subsequent statements are awful. They have fully thrown Carlos Ramos under the bus, and I think they should have backed him up. In sports officiating, I’m a proponent of enforcing the rules as written. If you don’t want a rule enforced, change it. In the final analysis, Ramos followed the rules as written, and was punished for it. That’s totally unfair to the entire officiating community. What happens next, when Maria Sharapova or Rafa Nadal or another big name throws a tantrum? The official message to umpires is now “disregard the rules and let it go, because the minute there’s public outcry, we won’t support you.” That’s bullshit.
As I said before, all of these things are true, and they don’t contradict each other. It’s possible to recognize that Ramos did his job, and still think that the rules are silly. It’s possible to have great admiration and respect for Serena, and still think she behaved very badly during the final. It’s possible for the crowd to get wrapped up in ESPN’s narrative, and still behave gracefully when the outcome doesn’t match up. It’s possible to think Naomi Osaka is totally awesome and… there’s nothing else to say about that!
Sorry, I do have one more thing to say. Congrats to Naomi Osaka, future Hall of Famer.
Tina S
Tina is a sometime contributor to SeedSing and occasional guest on the X Millennial Man Podcast. Want to hear what Tina has to say on the topic of the 2018 tennis Grand Slam Season? Check out the latest edition of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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