The epic meltdown

I remember the first stanza of a childhood poem, The Maker of All Things that say, “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”

Indeed, everything around us, with the exclusion of all the manmade marvels and eyesores, are God’s masterful creations. Everything He created was beautiful and perfect but there are some exceptions that are far more superior in appearance and ability.

One of our Creator’s masterpieces is in the person of a woman who had become an almost indestructible force in her chosen career. Everyone who follow sports, specifically tennis, should be familiar with Serena Williams and she’s no ordinary mortal.

At the age of 18, she won her first US Open in 1999. In doing so, she became the first Afro-American woman to win a Grand Slam in the Open era. She won again at Flushing Meadows, New York in 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

She also won in 2002 her first Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles. Serena won her first Australian Open in 2007. In 2016, with her 7th Wimbledon title, she tied Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles and broke that record in 2017 with her Australian Open victory, her 23rd.

The recent US Open was her 32nd Grand Slam Finals and it would have been her first GS title after giving birth to a daughter a year ago. Winning it would have been her 24th career GS title which will tie her with Australia’s Margaret

Court’s all-time record of 24 GS victories. Serena was not only after victory but also history.

Tennis deities did not smile on her this time but instead showered their blessings to a Japanese young lady named Naomi Osaka. Born in Japan to Japanese mother Tamaki Osaka and Haitian-American father Leonard Francois, the family resides in Florida and she holds a dual Japanese and American citizenship.

Turning pro in September 2013, her father decided to register her with the Japan Tennis Association and toured the WTA circuit. Her Grand Slam debut was in the2016 Oz Open where she reached the third round. She also reached the third round of the French Open but an injury prevented from joining Wimby. She also reached the third round of the US Open and then toured the Asian circuit. A wildcard entry sent her to the 2016 Toray Pan Pacific where she reached the finals but lost. Voted as Newcomer of the Year at 2016 WTA awards, she cracked the top 50 women’s rankings. She started 2018 ranked at 68th but after her straight sets US Open victory, she’s now number 7 in the world.

Instead of Osaka basking in the glory of her US Open victory, the trophy presentation not your usual happy occasion but instead was unnaturally awkward with boos and catcalls coming from the stands. It was not the expected outcome as most of the crowd wanted Serena to win. It clearly puzzled Naomi if the boos were actually directed at her. At least Serena had the class to whisper to her that the noise was not for her.

The shy and soft spoken 2018 US Open champion wasn’t even aware of Serena’s tantrum. She noticed something was wrong when the crowd was unusually loud but she said that as a child growing up, she was taught by her parents to look away and not mind people who are arguing.

This victory opened doors for endorsement deals. Reportedly, Adidas locked Naomi to an $8.5 annual deal in what could be the apparel company’s biggest deal for a female athlete. Another deal with a Japanese fashion company reportedly worth also in excess of $8million is in the works. Because of the victory, her other sponsors (Nissin, Yonnex) had their shares on the stock market rise by several percent.

On her 15th birthday, her mom gifted her with a Citizen watch and she had been wearing the brand ever since.

Increasing number of calls were made asking on the watch Naomi was wearing at the US Open, resulting in a 1.3 percent raise in shares of stocks in a span of two weeks. The watchmaker’s CEO, Toshio Tokura, in an emailed statement to Bloomberg said, “We are happy to see she was always wearing our watch on her way to victory.” An undisclosed bonus was given to her by Citizen. She now had become the second highest paid female athlete next to you guessed it, Serena.

Serena’s on-court outbursts eclipsed Osaka’s strong game. She had three previous run-ins with game officials at Flushing Meadows. In 2004 at the quarter finals, she argued with an umpire over several line calls. The beginning tantrum was a mild one as things get better with age.

The second episode was on the 2009 semis where she was previously warned of racket abuse. She then was called for a foot fault, reacted angrily and threatened to shove a ball down the line judge’s throat. She lost the match and was fined $82,500 and placed on a two-year probation.

In the 2011 finals, Serena shouted “Come on!” after hitting a forehand which her opponent failed to return. The umpire ruled it a hindrance and did not award the point to her, which made her furious and called the umpire “hater”. She was fined $2,000.

The mother of all outbursts, as of the moment, was last Sunday. Because she badly wanted to win and tie Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam victories, emotions took the better of Serena backed by a very partisan crowd. Words were spoken that were better left unsaid and it’s sad, for me personally, that tennis, whom I learned to like because of my wife and pa-in-law, had become divided because of racism and gender equality issues.

Serena just proved, again, that she’s the supernova of women’s tennis. I suppose it also earned her the right to be bitchy?Her explosion triggered a ripple effect, both negative and positive. The end result was a $17,000 penalty. Considering her $1.85 million runner-up prize, the fine didn’t even make a scratch.

The poem’s last stanza says, “He made us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell. How great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.” Yep, we saw and talked about what happened to a game between two of God’s great creations that despite all of the commotion, things eventually ended well.