Friends, if you are sport lover and that too of the game of Tennis, then you must be following the Grand Slam tournaments. In the recently concluded last Grand Slam tournament of the year, US Open 2018, there is one thing special in the women’s section and that is, in 2018 , the 4 grand slams had different winners. In Australian Open, played in Jan 2018, Caroline Wozniaki won; In the French Open played in Jun, Simona Halep won; In Wimbeldon played in Jul, Angelique Kerber won and in US open now Naomi Osaka won. This phenomenon has happened second time in succession, in 2017 also we had different winners- Serena Williams (Australian), Jelena Ostapenko (French),Garbine Muruguza (Wimbeldon) and Sloane Stephens (US). This means that in the last 8 grand slam tournament played, there were 8 different winners, which implies that there is no player in women’s section who is ahead of others at present. For last so many years it was Serena Williams who was leading the pack.
But this year’s US Open will be remembered for Serena Williams on court behaviour in the women’s final rather than she losing to Naomi Osaka in straight sets in the finals. The way match was progressing, it was evident that it is not Serena’s day, as she tamely lost the first set at 6-2. In the second set during the initial games she was trying to come back and when the score was 2-1 in Serena’s favour, at the time of break referee issued a code violation to Serena telling her she is getting on court coaching from her coach, which is prohibited in Grand slam tournaments. She started telling Referee in angry tone she was not taking coaching from her coach and she is not cheat, but on TV it was clearly seen that her coach was gesturing here with his hands, as if he was saying that play within central area, and there must have been eye contact with Serena, which is also seen on TV , as per his eye movement which was acknowledging Serena eye signal. Then again at the next break again she bursted out against Referee and again she was given code violation and she was penalised for one point, so Osaka started next game with game score at 15-0. At the set score of 3-3, Serena’s service was broken and in disgust she broke her racket for which again she was given code violation. But the matter did not end there now the verbal spat of Serena increased and she started calling referee that you are thief , you are stolen my point and you owe an apology, and she was shouting and yelling and fans watching the match in stadium and on TV heard her abuses. As this was going on poor Naomi Osaka was standing behind on her side of court. In the end referee again use the violation code and penalised her and awarded the next game to Naomi, which meant the set score now was 5-3 in favour of Naomi. After the intervention of Chief Referee the match resumed and eventually Serena lost the match 6-2, 6-4. This match will be more remembered as Sereena’s verbal outburst against referee rather that how Naomi out played her in the final.
The behaviour of Sereena in this match has divided the tennis world, because Sereena in her outburst also said that” There are men out there that do lot worse but because I am a woman, you are doing this to me.” She brought the topic of sexism in this , which attracted lot of comments in her favour. Yester years great player and founder of Women Tennis Association (WTA) Billie Jean King said ” when woman is emotional, she is hysterical and penalised for it. But when a man does the same, he is outspoken and then there are no repercussions”. But there are cases when even male players are also penalised. Even in this edition of US open men received code violations 23 times as compared with women 9 times. Earlier days even legendary player John McEnroe was disqualified from 4th round match for a series of outbursts against referee. In the last US open Fabio Foginini was ejected from 1st round match for crude remarks against female referee.
Friends, if you remember same Sereena Williams was penalised in US open 2009 match when she threatened line woman who foot faulted her, and that time also she was trailing in semi final match against Kim Clitser, and she had to forefeit the match, which anyway she was bound to lose.
There are many women players who have said that penalty was too harsh and for same offence men are not penalised this much.
The other main point which never came out strongly was that if Sareena would have won this would have been her 24th Grand Slam win and she would have equal the record set by Australian Margret Court, her sponsors were playing this in US media and they had started advertising strongly in her favour, and when all the other top player lost in the earlier rounds and Naomi Osaka reached the finals , all American medial and Tennis fan thought this is it, now she will win her 24th Grand Slam, but as the match progressed Sereena’s and all other American dream started fading, and the American fans started booing Naomi and referee after this verbal outbursts by Sereena, for which she was docked one point and one game. By this loss so many sponsors lost opportunity and Sereena also must have lost millions of dollars in endorsements. She will have to wait till next year for her 24th Grand slam. But the fact is in the end Naomi won deservedly and instead of getting applause she was receiving booing from American public which was really shameful.
I really liked what multi grand Slam winner Boris Becker said on this ” Sareena, really did have a meltdown when she was called for taking coaching. The Racket abuse was unnecessary and finally calling Ramos a thief was way, way out of line. Sereena is a great champion and she is one we are looking at. She owes her stature and legacy more grace than what she showed. She has had words on court before, but this time it went beyond any thing I have seen for a long time.”
In the end I would like to say, that I am watching tennis from the days it started beaming on Indian televisions, and I have not seen this type of behaviour from top and legend player, last person to behave like this was temperamental American John MecEnroe. Sereena is really a legend player with her achievements, she has won 23 Grand Slams and so many other titles, and she has become role model for so many young players, even for Naomi Osaka also she was her idol and role model, such player should keep their temper very cool. I have never seen Roger Federer, who is the biggest legend in men’s tennis, to lose his cool on the court.
Awaiting for your comments/views/feed backs on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
11th Sep 2018.
R. N. Mungale.
It was sad that Serena lost her temper. She otherwise is a great tennis player.