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Serena's meltdown

Kivaro

Being an admirer of what she has done on court and proving that mothers can be excellent athletes after giving birth, a different side of Serena Williams may have been exposed in her outburst at the US Open yesterday.

But here's the deal after watching a number of reports of the incident, I am amazed by the amount of people rushing to support her. Experts in tennis validated the sanctions imposed by the umpire; yet still she publicly called him a liar and a cheat, and said that she was "here fighting for womens rights" and the umpire sanctioned her because she was a woman. She said if a man was on court, it would not have happened. So the umpire, according to Serena, was a sexist, liar, and cheat. And she said all of this on the court in front of a massive crowd and on live TV.

Speaking to the media after the event, she said it was "sexist" of the umpire to take a game away from her. "But I'm going to continue to fight for women.", she said. Some of her supporters have accused the umpire of being racist and that he was on a misogynistic power trip. Get a grip, it was a tennis game; not a human rights march.

You can go online to see her outbursts yesterday, but I find it mind boggling that so much these days is attributed to sexism/racism/whateverism when things don't go their way.

Meanwhile, Naomi Osaka, who became the first Japanese player to win a major singles final, was left in tears as a result of the incident.

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alan partridge aha

She should be forced to apologise immediately or else face a long ban. What a piece of work she is.

Mental Mickey

Just seen it on the news. FFS she's a cretin.

JP Liz V1

Murray TheDemonic TalkingSkull wrote: »

Not fair on Naomi Osaka who won. People should be talking about her win and not the temper tantrum. An experienced and professional player like Serena Williams should and does know better.

Yes Osaka's win overshadowed

This is also Williams second big loss this year maybe she has peaked

Itssoeasy

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Heard about it first on Ireland AM this morning. Simon Delaney was making the point that she broke the rules, straight away the two female presenters rounded on him. Their defense was ‘internet trolls’.

I hope she’s banned for a while.

Internet trolls didn't smash Serena racket into the ground and internet trolls didn't make Serena call the umpire a thief and a liar.

[Deleted User]

just surprised she didn't pull the ali G line "is it 'cos I'm blick"? (probably just didn't say that 'cos her opponent Osaka is black-japanese). both of them crying after the match. crowd booing. mayhem

Itssoeasy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OILrXggTjpQ

This is a clip of the thief comment from last night. I'll be honest it doesn't make Serena look good at all. She comes across very poorly here.

Jimbob1977

They were saying Boo-urns

BorneTobyWilde

No one was booing Osaka in all fairness. It's was just the pure pigheadedness and self absorbed Serena that took it upon herself to paint that picture.
'' no more booing '' Booing WAS FOR HER ! A LOT OF IT

No one booed Osaka, no one. They booed the officials yes, but not Osaka, but Serena she had to put her spin on it '' no more booing, I know it's not the outcome we wanted'' WTF . That hurt Osaka those words, made her feel crowd hated her, they did not, Osaka supporters booed Serena, and whole crowd booed the officials.
Osaka had many supporters in crowd and a lot of them were American.

Fr_Dougal

Heard about it first on Ireland AM this morning. Simon Delaney was making the point that she broke the rules, straight away the two female presenters rounded on him. Their defense was ‘internet trolls’.

I hope she’s banned for a while.

retro:electro

“I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality”..
What about the rights of the woman whose moment you just ruined by being a petulant and narcissisticly entitled brat.
When all else fails just pretend you’re championing women’s rights, despite the fact your opponent was also a woman. Then when that fails accuse the referee of being sexist, despite the fact the opponent was also a woman.
Then cry racism, despite the fact the opponent was also a woman of colour.

DrWu

erica74 wrote: »

What I'm most appalled by is Serena robbing Naomi Osaka of her moment. Serena was once that young player starting out in the sport and she should know what it's like to have that first major win, she knows what that moment feels like and unfortunately, she has robbed Osaka of that.

The usual suspects in the media are jumping on the poor Serena bandwagon, instead of celebrating Osaka and her mega achievement.

And for the posters saying "all women" do this and that, remember Osaka is also a woman and she didn't act like an asshole and she is also representative of women.

She was fantastic. Kept her cool and her focus to win the match and remained dignified afterwards. Williams did neither.

padd b1975

dxhound2005 wrote: »

She also told the umpire that he would never umpire again when she is playing. I wonder how will that turn out.

Never umpire on "her" court!

Her ego is clearly off the chart.
Horrible woman to deal with both on and off the court I suspect.

erica74

What I'm most appalled by is Serena robbing Naomi Osaka of her moment. Serena was once that young player starting out in the sport and she should know what it's like to have that first major win, she knows what that moment feels like and unfortunately, she has robbed Osaka of that.

The usual suspects in the media are jumping on the poor Serena bandwagon, instead of celebrating Osaka and her mega achievement.

And for the posters saying "all women" do this and that, remember Osaka is also a woman and she didn't act like an asshole and she is also representative of women.

Joe_ Public

Niles Crane wrote: »

The best should always tested more often that the lesser players because if they are juicing it does massive damage to a sports credibility, they need to be tested more often to ensure they are clean.Someone ranked number 100 in the world is failing a drugs test will not do much damage to a sport, the number one in the world being a drug cheat does massive damage to a sport.

This is absolutely true of course, dope testing is by nature an inherently discriminatory practice anyway. Every athlete signs up to it or they retire and go do something else.

But it still should be specified that Serena is not, in fact, tested significantly more than her peers. Just another example of her being disingenuous and twisting the facts to suit a chosen narrative. Should have been called out on it as on so much else.

SeaFields

Just watched it There aren't many sports out there that you can berate an official with abuse and not be sanctioned. She didn't know when to shut up and was sanctioned accordingly.

But of course, it was sexist. No question about that /FFS

silverharp

i dont mind her behaviour on the court, im sure people watched mcenroe in the past hoping for something to kick off, but her whiney self defence after is just pure entitlement.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Who broke her racket for her ? The coach, or the umpire ?

When she already knew, peeved about it or not, that she was already on one violation.

My point entirely: she never contested that one and should have known to calm down and not mouth off when you've already had two violations.

I never said she was innocent here.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Are you saying that she would have won the match if none of the rulings had gone against her?

super_furry wrote: »

Don't really agree with that. I watched the match in between watching Amir Khan show the world his glass chin again and no matter what happened Serena was going to lose that match. She was utterly outclassed in the first set and her melt-down was a reaction to the fact that she was going to lose, rather than the cause.

No, not at all - she may very well have lost anyway. But the meltdown ****ed up any chance of a comeback. She was already a set down and Osaka was folding firm when it kicked off.

At that level, it's as more mental state and concentration that determines winners than physical ability.

WinnyThePoo

Watched it and felt ashamed of her. She was being outplayed. Get on with it. Both violations are black and white in the rules. Then abuse. Just get on with it.

Fair play to Osaka.

Niles Crane

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

It's a terrible thing to overshadow Osaka's historic victory. The coaching violation seems unfair but those are the rules and there's no comeback against the racket smash or verbal abuse.

But I don't agree with criticising her for dress code breaches or drug testing frequency. Tennis' dress code is incredibly outdated and is not necessary to play the sport to full advantage unlike other sports where the uniform suits the movement required. Female players should be allowed wear shorts or trousers if they so wish. Serena breached it for medical reasons anyway. The drug testing frequency is a legit complaint, if one athlete is tested at a far greater frequency than their peers it does warrant criticism and questions. Simone Biles who also happens to be a superb black athlete miles beyond her peers is and has been tested at an alarming frequency compared to her competitors.

I've seen Viktoria Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko wearing shorts in matches.

Wimbledon has a dress code of players only being allowed to wear white and people just get on with it, lots of sports have dress codes.

The best should always tested more often that the lesser players because if they are juicing it does massive damage to a sports credibility, they need to be tested more often to ensure they are clean.Someone ranked number 100 in the world is failing a drugs test will not do much damage to a sport, the number one in the world being a drug cheat does massive damage to a sport.

DrWu

I was watching and it was obvious at one point that she couldn't keep pace. That's when she lost the plot. Even McEnroe (nearly 40 years ago I might add) never called the Umpire a thief and a liar.

The sexism thing is total nonsense (I think calling a man a "super-brat" also falls under the category of sexist if you want to go there).

A bad loser and incredibly disrespectful to her opponent who thoroughly deserved her win. But the usual idiots will swarm to her defence screaming "racist" and "sexist" as loud as their lungs will allow.

The world is a bizarre place.

Joe_ Public

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

It's a terrible thing to overshadow Osaka's historic victory. The coaching violation seems unfair but those are the rules and there's no comeback against the racket smash or verbal abuse.

But I don't agree with criticising her for dress code breaches or drug testing frequency. Tennis' dress code is incredibly outdated and is not necessary to play the sport to full advantage unlike other sports where the uniform suits the movement required. Female players should be allowed wear shorts or trousers if they so wish. Serena breached it for medical reasons anyway. The drug testing frequency is a legit complaint, if one athlete is tested at a far greater frequency than their peers it does warrant criticism and questions. Simone Biles who also happens to be a superb black athlete miles beyond her peers is and has been tested at an alarming frequency compared to her competitors.

Actually I dont think its true that Serena is tested more than her peers, certainly not significantly so at least. It happens in lots of sports all the time anyway, that some athletes get targeted for one reason or another - can be something as simple as just trying to create a blood profile - and you rarely hear them complaining about it. They suck it up and get on with it. Serena was moaning about it earlier this year but turned out her complaints were less than legitimate.

Corruptedmorals

It's a terrible thing to overshadow Osaka's historic victory. The coaching violation seems unfair but those are the rules and there's no comeback against the racket smash or verbal abuse.

But I don't agree with criticising her for dress code breaches or drug testing frequency. Tennis' dress code is incredibly outdated and is not necessary to play the sport to full advantage unlike other sports where the uniform suits the movement required. Female players should be allowed wear shorts or trousers if they so wish. Serena breached it for medical reasons anyway. The drug testing frequency is a legit complaint, if one athlete is tested at a far greater frequency than their peers it does warrant criticism and questions. Simone Biles who also happens to be a superb black athlete miles beyond her peers is and has been tested at an alarming frequency compared to her competitors.

The Rape of Lucretia

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

There's a bot of both to this:

Serena has lost before and not reacted this badly, so I don't buy the "sore loser" argument. Also, it was her coach who committed the first offence, not here. He made a hand gesture. She may not have seen it, or, even if she had seen it, had no control over it. Penalise the coach, ban the coach, send the coach to he locker room in that case.

She also reacted to it. Professionals don't. They keep their head down, play better and use the incident to spur them on and focus. Serena didn't - she went into meltdown. They don't call the umpire a thief, and no one does this without consequences. Probably not in any sport.

Whether it was sexist or racist (in fairness, she only claimed the former as far as I know) should be easily proven: have men or white players been trated differently in the past when the same thing has happened?

TL-DR - wasn't entirely her fault, but how she reacted is and that's what cost her the match.

Who broke her racket for her ? The coach, or the umpire ?

When she already knew, peeved about it or not, that she was already on one violation.

Nermal

She's so brave! Apart from when drug testers ring her doorbell.

OldMrBrennan83

Mookie Blaylock wrote: »

No, she's the sister who almost died after having a baby last year

She had a baby? She's not mentioned it.

ligerdub

She's an idiot.

Mookie Blaylock

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Is she the sister who killed a guy in a car crash? Maybe its PTSD.

No, she's the sister who almost died after having a baby last year

super_furry

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

TL-DR - wasn't entirely her fault, but how she reacted is and that's what cost her the match.

Don't really agree with that. I watched the match in between watching Amir Khan show the world his glass chin again and no matter what happened Serena was going to lose that match. She was utterly outclassed in the first set and her melt-down was a reaction to the fact that she was going to lose, rather than the cause.

Itssoeasy

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Is she the sister who killed a guy in a car crash? Maybe its PTSD.

No.