Serena Williams criticized tennis officials and referees of being openly sexist after controversial penalties during her final match at the U.S. Open.
During her match against Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams racked up $17,000 worth of fines due to code violations. Williams said male players would not have received penalties for the same violations.
Frustration took over during the second set when a warning was issued against Williams for on-court coaching by Carlos Ramos, the chair umpire. Williams approached the chair and told Ramos, “One thing I’ve never done is cheat, ever. If he gives me a thumbs up he’s telling me to, ‘Come on.’”
Williams later racked up another violation and a point penalty for her next set, after smashing her racket. She told Ramos he owed her an apology for implying she had cheated and called him a ‘thief’ for taking the point.
The verbal abuse resulted in her third code violation, which immediately gave the game to Osaka. Williams allegedly approached the chair again and said, “Are you kidding me, because I called you a thief? But you stole a point from me.”
All of this led to many bringing up allegations of sexism and double standards.
Williams made this claim to Grand Slam Tournament Supervisor Donna Kelso. She said, “Do you know how many other men do things that are — that do much worse than that? This is not fair. There’s a lot of men out here that have said a lot of things, but if they’re men, that doesn’t happen to them.”
During her post match press conference Williams supported her claims by saying “For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief.’”
The International Tennis Federation backed Ramos, calling him one of the most ‘experienced and respected umpires in tennis,’ and his call was in line with the code, therefore implying his judgement call was not sexist.
But Williams is not the only female tennis player to experience gender bias on the court. Alize Cornet, a French player, was penalized for fixing her shirt in a match, while male players have changed shirts many times and never been penalized.
Some people still questioned if William’s allegations were warranted even after her claims were backed up by representatives from the Women’s Tennis Association and the United States Tennis Association.
The New York Times published possibly skewed statistics on the punishment history at Grand Slam tournaments from 1998 to 2018 that seemingly dispersed William’s allegations, but for some this wasn’t the case.
William’s husband Alexis Ohanian criticized these statistics in a tweet stating, “If men were punished 344 times out of 3440 audible obscenities (10 percent enforcement), but women were punished 140 times out of 700 audible obscenities (20 percent enforcement) — that would mean women are penalized 2x more often than men for the same violation.”
Women face different and unique challenges in all facets of society, and after the calls made against Williams, it is clear sports are one as well, even when the woman is one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Connor Swerseycan be reached at [email protected]