Czech star shoots down Serena over sexism
Czech tennis player Barbora Strycova has slammed Serena Williams’ attitude and declared the superstar’s claims of sexism as ‘‘bulls...’’.
Williams received wide support in her claims after a series of code violations issued by umpire Carlos Ramos saw her attack the man in the chair as she lost the US Open final to Japan’s Naomi Osaka in New York last weekend.
But world No 25 Strycova hit out strongly at Williams in an interview with Sport.CZ, shooting down her accusations that umpires treat women differently and lashing the former world No 1’s behaviour.
‘‘This is a bulls ... . For umpires being women or men doesn’t matter. In comparison, I never saw [Rafael] Nadal shouting like that with an umpire,’’ Strycova said.
‘‘Me, as a woman, take a lot of warnings. WTA defence surprised me. Will rules change in Serena’s matches? If it’s like this, let me know.’’
The Sport.CZ interview with 32-yearold Strycova, who has been a professional since 2003, was followed widely in mainstream media and specialist tennis websites.
Strycova said respected umpire Ramos was simply doing his job
‘‘Ramos is tough, one of the best umpires in the world.
‘‘He did what he had to do in that match, because she overcame the limit. Did she have to behave differently only because she was Serena Williams?
‘‘I find it interesting that she did it only when she was losing,’’ Strycova said.
Strycova also claimed that Williams, along with sister Venus, regularly received on-court coaching, which was at the root of the violations in the US Open final.
‘‘They are always with their gang behind, their team,’’ Strycova said.
‘‘It’s strange because that’s an individual sport, but I got used to it.’’
In the wake of this controversy, Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou disclosed he was coaching from the players’ box during the US Open final but claimed that practice was widespread.