Rarely if ever have we seen an athlete of Serena Williams’s stature: in terms of strength, talent, grit, staying power. Hers has been a difficult, inspirational journey; her legions of dedicated fans prove the point! She recently lost the US Open finals. The reactions to the event have been rather varied. While some followers of the game claim that Williams is the victim of sexism, yet again, others have decried that they see as poor sporting spirit. Here’s what happened:
During the finals, Serena disputed a decision of the umpire, calling the umpire a thief and a liar. The referee Carlos Ramos gave Williams a code violation for what he said was, her receiving coaching during the match from her coach Patrick Mouratoglou. She denied that anything like this happened. The coach said that he had been coaching from the box, but that Williams had not seen him. Later the referee docked a point and then the next game. Williams was also fined $17,000 for the violations.
Novak Djokovic, who won the men’s single title, felt that the docking of points by Ramos likely cost Serena the match; but he did not think that Williams had been treated any differently than male player would have been. Fans as well as officials have rallied behind the star player; expressing the view that the punishments she received were out of proportion and unnecessarily harsh.
Many of Williams’ fans thought that the whole thing reeked of sexism. They felt that women are penalised unfairly and out of proportion to their transgressions, while similar behaviour by male players is either condoned or treated less severely. The name of John McEnroe was frequently invoked to demonstrate how male players have behaved badly in the past and got away with it all.
In all the arguing over the points, most people seemed to lose sight of the fact that at just 20, Naomi Osaka of Japan played beautifully to win the US Open tournament. She played like a champion but she was crying when called on to receive the cup. She felt the need to apologise for winning! The players were crying, the audience hissing and booing; it was a grim match aftermath.
Many commentators and experts of the game felt that Osaka was very unjustly treated. She was subjected to booing and her performance belittled and devalued. She didn’t get to revel in her moment of glory because the fans wanted Williams to win and were utterly uncharitable of Osaka being a better player on the day.
While fans have staunchly supported their idol, some fans have come out and spoken against Williams and what they saw as her inability to keep her cool. They felt that the star should have had the self-control to check her behavior and the humility to play by the rules.
Many tweets pointed out that Serena Williams is no stranger to expressing her disagreements with match officials. Several instances of Williams having ‘meltdowns’ and ‘tantrums’ in the past, were offered to demonstrate a pattern of behavior.
Perhaps Williams was unfairly penalised in the game, perhaps not. But then so are plenty of others. Mistakes and injustices do happen. All players feel that they have been unfairly dealt with from time to time; and it’s a part of the game to learn to deal with this. Perhaps she was more harshly judged than a man would have been; maybe not. Like it or not, the world does still have very different standards for what constitutes acceptable behaviour for men and women.
But what is also undoubtedly true is that Serena Williams behaved badly that day. As she berated the match official, she came across as entitled and out of control. Her halfhearted attempt to quiet the booing crowd and tepid congratulations for Naomi Osaka were too late, too little. That historic win had already been spoilt for the 20 year who won…but still didn’t win that day.
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