Serena Williams should have known better.
The greatest women’s tennis champion of the last 50 years, perhaps ever, should have known she was one outburst, one wrong word, one complaint, from receiving a game penalty in a match she was already losing.
Instead of collecting herself and regaining some sense of self-control in the second set of the U.S. Open women’s final on Saturday, she had another meltdown and found herself in a hole, a very big hole, from which she could not dig herself out. Not this time.
But forfeiting the eighth game of the second set is not why Serena Williams lost to unheralded Naomi Osaka, 6-2, 6-4, before a booing, jeering crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows. Williams lost because Osaka played better. The 20-year-old making her first Grand Slam final appearance served better, returned better, and kept her poise better than her 36-year-old idol, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion.
It’s that simple. On this particular afternoon in New York, Naomi Osaka played better tennis than Serena Williams. She earned the victory.
Williams certainly did not help herself. In the second game of the second set Williams was penalized for receiving coaching via hand signals from her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. Williams argued with the chair umpire Carlos Ramos that Mouratoglou was merely flashing a thumbs up sign. Ramos was not convinced, and Mouratoglou later conceded he was using hand signals, just like other coaches.
After losing her serve in the fifth game, Williams smashed her racquet, drawing another penalty from Ramos, this time costing Williams a point under the code of conduct. Williams should have been on her best behavior from then on, but on the changeover after Osaka had taken a 4-3 lead, Williams continued to berate Ramos. She demanded an apology. She called him a thief for the point penalty. She refused to let it go and move on.
Ramos slapped her with another violation, for verbal abuse, which, under the rules, meant a lost game. Williams was incensed and summoned Brian Early, the tournament referee, and Donna Kelso, the WTA supervisor, to the court. She complained about her treatment and, injecting sexism into her outburst, said many men have behaved far worse without a penalty. Neither Early nor Kelso was sufficiently moved to make a change. Rules are rules, and Serena Williams should know the rules, right?
Critics have asserted that Ramos could have handled the situation better. He could have given a “soft” warning about the coaching. He could have warned Williams that she was close to crossing the line of decorum with her verbal tirade.
But Ramos, a veteran umpire who has sat in the chair of every major tournament final in tennis and is well-respected for being tough but fair, was merely enforcing the rules. As for sexism, he has been tough on the top male players over the years. Had he been a baseball umpire, Ramos probably would have ejected Williams from the game.
Serena Williams should have known better, that’s all. Her tirade cost her $17,000 in fines: $10,000 for the verbal abuse, $4,000 for the coachng violation, and $3,000 for smashing her racquet.
To her credit, during the trophy presentation Williams urged spectators to stop booing, and she congratulated Osaka on her triumph. At that point Serena Williams knew better than to resume her rant. The damage had been done, more by Naomi Osaka with her brilliant tennis, than by Carlos Ramos with his calls.
Graceful and gracious beyond her years, Osaka said she knew the crowd wanted Serena to win and that she was sorry the match ended as it did. She then thanked everyone for watching. She behaved like a true champion, like her idol, Serena Williams had on 23 previous occasions.
