Claim of sexism gains credence

A day after Serena Williams’ assertions that women are treated differently by chair umpires and referees at the U.S. Open, others around the tennis world weighed in to either defend the superstar or agree with her points. Or both.

Just as Novak Djokovic accepted the trophy for his third U.S. Open men’s title, WTA chief executive Steve Simon released a statement regarding the previous day’s women’s final, and backing Williams’ accusation that sexism played a part in the code violations that cost her a game in a loss to Naomi Osaka.

“[Saturday] also brought to the forefront the question of whether different standards are applied to men and women in the officiating of matches,” Simon tweeted out in a statement.

“The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same. We do not believe that this was done [Saturday] night.”

For his part, Djokovic said “it’s hard to generalize things” regarding women being treated unequally, but felt chair umpire Carlos Ramos had not only overreacted, but definitely impacted the final.

“I have my personal opinion that maybe the chair umpire should not have pushed Serena to the limit, especially in a Grand Slam final. Just maybe changed — not maybe, but he did change the course of the match,” Djokovic said. “[It] was, in my opinion, maybe unnecessary. We all go through our emotions, especially when you’re fighting for a Grand Slam trophy.”

Women’s doubles champ CoCo Vandeweghe — whose grandfather Ernie and uncle Kiki are both ex-Knicks — was more blunt.

“I’ll keep it simple. I thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was a poor call from the umpire. I think he should be held accountable just like the players are,” Vandeweghe said. “What I think is, the umpires, they antagonize a lot of players. There’s certain ones that need to be checked.

“They need to be held accountable for the mistakes that they make and the calls they do make, whether they’re right, wrong, or indifferent. ... I think they need to be held accountable.”