Serena Williams is one of the best women’s tennis players in history. But she sure behaved like an amateur in the U.S. Open final this past Saturday.
The umpire of the match, won by 20-year-old Naomi Osaka of Japan, penalized Williams three times: first for receiving signals from her coach in the stands, then for smashing her racquet, and finally for a lengthy argument with the umpire in which she called him a thief for penalizing her a point.
Williams told reporters afterward that she believed the umpire was holding her, as a woman, to a higher standard of behavior than he did male tennis players. She had a point: Though her behavior during the second set of the match was crass, it did not come close to the antics of long-ago bad boys John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, not to mention more recent miscreants.
All that said, Williams completely lost her cool, and the episode overshadowed an impressive performance by Osaka, a first-time major winner who outplayed her idol. It wasn’t necessarily Williams’ fault that the crowd, which was rooting heavily for her, booed during the awards ceremony and brought Osaka to tears. But had Williams better maintained her composure during the match, it would never have come to such an ugly end.
Williams has won 23 major singles titles, but her conduct Saturday did not reflect her well-deserved status in the game.
