US OPEN 2025 CONTROVERSIES (SO FAR)

Now that we’re down to the Quarterfinals of this year’s US Open tennis tourney, it’s time to discuss a few of the highlights, or perhaps more accurately, the lowlights, of the first week.

There were a few headlines, some of which I’ve already written about. (You can still read about the star-studded Mixed Doubles here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/tennis-the-2025-us-open-began-yesterday, and about one of the biggest first week controversies here: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/holiday-happy-labor-day-week-end-2025.)

Now here are a few more:

COCO GAUFF’S SERVE

American Coco Gauff has been having serving problems all year, so she fired her coach, (which she does a lot,) and hired mechanical expert Gavin MacMillan, to help her fix it. The poor young girl has still been an open wound, crying and shaking through her matches, (right after I had made a note that she’s so mature now.) Someone really needs to step in and help her.

But what chapped my hide was a statement Gavin made in an on-camera interview with Pam Shriver. He basically ragged on all his previous clients and all her previous coaches! He said, “Obviously, there’s a lot of past memories in there that we’re trying to overcome, but that’s a matter of repetition now. You know the only goal was to try to put the foundation down so that this is solved forever for her, and let’s see what she does, because as you know, there’s nobody better athletically out here, she has the best backhand in the world, and her competitive spirit is unmatched.” And then he thanked the commentators on ESPN for their support, trying to make it sound like the sports channel personnel care more about Coco than the other players. That is so frigging rude of him, on so many levels.

Then just as I was seeing red about his rudeness, Patrick McEnroe, the studio host, asked commentator Brad Gilbert, “So what do you make of this new development for Coco?,” because Brad had been her coach for a few years. (I’m adding: during which she finally got really successful, and won her first of two Majors.) Brad answered, “Well, Coco’s a perfectionist, and obviously, the way things were going in Cincinnati, third time she lost to Paolini, she probably felt like, ‘You know what, I probably need to make a change.’ And Gavin got let go by Sabalenka, and then all of a sudden, she felt like, ‘I need to address this.’” So Brad discreetly let us know that this jerk did not leave Sabalenka—Sabalenka fired him! (And from what I understand, Aryna is the one who recommended him to Coco in the first place! So no need for him to be so bitter.)

By the way—Mr. X erroneously thought that I don’t like Coco. I actually do—it’s the jingoistic reporting about her that I can’t stand. And I admire her maturity.

TAYLOR TOWNSEND—JELENA OSTAPENKO DEBACLE

So, even before the controversy that began immediately after the second round match between Jelena Ostapenko and Taylor Townsend—the two most out-of-shape-looking, most obnoxious women on the whole tour—I couldn’t wait to see how this one played out. I didn’t know which one to root against more! And I knew the end handshake would be something to witness.

When Taylor was screaming at the spectators to make noise for her, the commentator said admiringly that she was “whipping the fans up to an absolute frenzy here.” So, let me get this straight—it’s okay for an American to do that, but not European Daniil Medvedev???

In case you don’t know about the controversy that began at the handshake and still has not ended entirely, here’s what happened: Jelena, who lost, admonished Taylor that she was rude to not have apologized when she won a point by a “net cord,” which means it hit the top of the net, which helped it go over to win the point. All the players say “sorry” when that happens for them, even though we viewers are sure they don’t mean it. But it’s just the polite thing to do, and is sort-of an unwritten rule of tennis. So Taylor nastily told Jelena that she “doesn’t have to do anything,” and an argument ensued, with Jelena, who’s from Latvia, telling Taylor that she’s “classless” and “uneducated.” So, of course, people made it about race, which it was not—Jelena gets into it with just about everyone she plays against, win or lose. I think she’s universally disliked.

People have to stop saying that in disputes between people of different ethnicities, the lighter one is a racist! You can tell when it is true, and it’s far from always the case. And, even though I don’t know either of them personally, I highly doubt that Jelena is racist. And that’s because she’s also been difficult with other players, all white, through the years. She’s just an equal opportunity arguer.

Taylor should have just said she’s sorry when Jelena pointed-out that she hadn’t apologized for the net cord. All the players do a “sorry” gesture for a net cord, no matter how insincere, as James Blake pointed-out they all are. And then the rest of the dispute would have not happened.

And it turns-out, (as has been pointed-out by several people on social media,) that in languages around the world, “uneducated” means rude or without manners; it has nothing to do with *schooling at all. (My note on the schooling issue in a couple of paragraphs.)

So, Jelena issued a few apologies on-line, but people were still saying she’s a racist. Her last apology explained what I just did about the definition of “uneducated” in her country.

In my opinion, if Taylor were truly classy, upon hearing Jelena’s most recent apology, she would have said she didn’t realize the language difference, and that she appreciates the concept and apology. And that would have been the end of it. Instead, she was still berating Jelena to the press. Oh well. The tournament seems to have finally moved on, so I’m letting it go, as well.

*[Note: Even though I have no idea of Taylor’s level of schooling, she did say a couple of not-bright things in the next few days. In one instance, she said “incidences” instead of the correct “incidents.” But even worse was this: In response to something Jelena said, Taylor said that she had beaten Ostapenko outside the US, with, “I beat her in Canada, which is outside the US, and I beat her in New York, which is outside the US.” She thinks that New York is not in the United States??? She may not be uneducated, but she was definitely absent that day!]

[And FYI—no other outlets wanted to show Taylor saying something so wrong, so they left it out of their written reports, or, if it was a video, they cut that part out. People.com wanted to publish her whole statement, so they corrected her “outside the US” to “[inside]” (in brackets,) which shows it to be corrected, hoping that their readers don’t know what brackets mean, or, if they do, they won’t be able to figure-out which wrong word was changed.]

And by the way, just a few days later, another player, Anna Kalinskaya, also chastised her opponent for not saying sorry for benefitting from the net cord! But, most likely because both players are white, the commentators never said a word about it!

If you’re wondering, I’m the furthest thing from racist myself, which you’d know if you knew my whole life. I was abused by white people for a long time for being in a biracial relationship before Mr. X, and because of their ignorance, I got rid of several people I had considered to be friends at the time. I just judge everyone on their actions, not by skin color, religion, gender, size, or anything else many are biased against. (But if you have yellow teeth, you might face my wrath.)

A CONTROVERSY NO ONE ELSE IS MENTIONING, BUT IS VERY IMPORTANT, IN MY OPINION

As I covered in my first US Open column this year, (link at the top of this article,) a young SoCal tennis player, Braun Levi, was tragically killed some months ago by a drunk driver. They even honored his family here by having them do the coin toss at Novak Djokovic’s third round match the other night, to give a bit of publicity to their foundation that is in Braun’s memory.

So, everyone at ESPN is extra-aware of the evils of alcohol. Yet, every single one of the commentators has joked about or lauded drinking! Often they’re talking about the famous-ish alcoholic beverages that are served at the tournament, (like the main one, the Honey Deuce,) but they even occasionally just say how fun drinking is, in general! Coco Vandeweghe even sang the praises of morning drinking!!! That is soooo offensive! Someone needs to tell them all to stop, especially this year!

LETTING KIDS RUN DOWN TO “AUTOGRAPH POSITION” BEFORE THE MATCH IS OVER!

There are always kids (and some grown-ups) at the bottom of the stands begging for autographs at the end of matches. But I had never given a thought to how they got there! It turns-out that they run down from higher up, many with the giant tennis balls to sign. And all that is well and good.

But this year, they’re allowing the kids to run down while the match is still going on! That is so distracting to the players. One time, I saw the guards even telling them to go back up, but all that movement and noise is also distracting.

They need to just not allow it to happen in the first place! Dot, dash, end of story. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Next week, I’ll do the wrap-up of the tourney, with some happier thoughts. I hope!