SERENA IS THE BULLY, NOT THE VICTIM
SERENA Williams’ astonishing tantrum at Saturday’s US Open tennis final was ugly enough. But her excuses were even worse. “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and women’s equality,” Williams sobbed at her post-match press conference.
Amazingly, journalists actually applauded, as if this fabulously rich and entitled superstar bully really was a heroine of the oppressed.
Blame the poison of the victim movement. It seems we now have different rules not just for the rich but for women and, dare I say, black women, particularly.
See, “fighting for women’s rights” apparently means smashing your racquet, having your coach cheat, abusing the umpire, and inciting your fans until they boo your opponent.
In fact, the booing when Naomi Osaka finally beat Williams was so bad that Osaka felt forced to tearily apologise for winning her first Grand Slam title.
So which women’s “rights” was Williams fighting for? Certainly not Osaka’s.
Here’s what happened. Williams, chasing her 24th major title, had already been whipped in the first set, 2-6.
Early in the second set, chair umpire Carlos Ramos spotted Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, urging her with both hands to move closer to the baseline.
Coaching from the sidelines is against the rules, and Ramos gave Williams a warning for a code violation.
Mouratoglou, himself, later admitted “I was coaching”, as the video confirms, and offered just two feeble excuses: that every coach breaks that rule, and “I don’t think (Serena) looked at me”.
So why was he gesturing at Williams if she was not watching?
Yet Williams blew up on court at Ramos, falsely claiming her coach had just given her a “thumbs up”.
“I don’t cheat to win. I’d rather lose,” she shouted.
Four games later, more drama: Williams smashed her racquet after having her serve broken.
She was called for a second code violation, and docked the first point of the next game.
Again she abused the umpire, this time playing the mother card: “I don’t cheat. You need to make an announcement.
“I have a daughter and I stand for what’s right. You owe me an apology.”
Two games later, and still trailing, Williams went nuclear, even threatening Ramos: “You will never be on a court with me as long as you live. “You are the liar …
“How dare you insinuate that I was cheating? You stole a point from me. “You’re a thief, too.”
Ramos issued her a third violation and the statutory penalty — loss of the next game. Two games later, and Osaka won, 6-2 6-4.
I’ve never seem an uglier tennis presentation. Williams and the hooting partisan crowd were so furious that officials banned Ramos from receiving the usual umpire’s award.
Only belatedly did Williams suggest the crowd stop booing so the crying Osaka could make her speech.
So what is Williams’ excuse for ruining Osaka’s biggest sporting moment? Williams claims she’s a victim of sexism, since (she says) male players get away with worse behaviour.
Do they? Then punish the men more, not Williams less.
And shouldn’t Williams be judged as an individual, rather than as a representative of an allegedly oppressed gender? Here’s how victim politics helps people dodge responsibility for their actions.
In fact, the problem with Williams is not that she’s been punished too much but was punished too little, particularly at the US Open.
In a 2009 semi-final, she menaced a lineswoman who had called her for a foot-fault, saying: “If I could, I would take this f---ing ball and shove it down your f---ing throat.”
She was docked one point and later fined just $10,000.
In the 2011 final, she abused umpire Eva Asderaki, who’d docked her a point for an unsportsmanlike hindrance of Australian Sam Stosur.
“You ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way,” Williams ranted, calling Asderaki a “loser”, “a hater” and “ugly inside”.
Asderaki did not penalise Williams for this abuse, and Williams was later fined a derisory $2000.
Why such pathetic penalties? Because she was a superstar that tennis officials did not dare cross? Because she was a woman? Black?
Whatever the cause, we see the effect. Williams on Saturday exploded in shock at meeting an umpire actually prepared to call out a bad sport.
But too late.
Williams has now suggested a toxic excuse to a million impressionable teenagers should they, too, be accused of being bad sports — that the fault lies not in them, but in the sexism, racism or homophobia of their judges. Even the greatest bully is merely a victim.