![\"Serena](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/4FE7CC3000000578-6146903-Serena_Williams_came_to_blows_with_the_umpire_in_the_US_Women_s_-a-3_1536449921432-e1536572435778.jpg\")
<\/a>Serena Williams berating Carlos Ramos.<\/p><\/div>\n
First of all, I want everyone to understand that Carlos Ramos, the chair umpire for the Ladies Championship match on Saturday, did nothing<\/em> wrong. Absolutely nothing. One of my pals, who knows less<\/em> than nothing about tennis, read a little about this controversy, and saw a few words on TV about it, and came to the conclusion that Serena was wronged by Carlos. That could not be further from the truth. So please, all my readers, be smart enough to see the action unfold for yourselves before you, too, perpetuate that falsehood. Or just read this<\/em> to learn the truth.<\/p>\n In case you don\u2019t know anything about the situation, here\u2019s what happened, in a nutshell. Serena Williams was playing young newcomer, Japan\u2019s Naomi Osaka, for the championship of the U.S. Open. Naomi was beating the pants off Serena, and won the first set. Then Serena\u2019s coach was caught giving her hand signals, (which he later admitted<\/em> that he did,) which is coaching<\/em>, and is not allowed, so it\u2019s considered a code violation, and the player gets a warning. Serena went nuts when she got that warning, carrying-on that she doesn\u2019t cheat. No one said she cheated<\/em>; the umpire just rightfully gave her the warning because her coach coached her from the stands. Period.<\/p>\n Then a few games later, when she lost that game, Serena smashed her racket to the ground, breaking it. Every player knows that that is another<\/em> code violation, and a second<\/em> code violation point results in the loss of a point, which happened here. Serena kept riding Carlos, and on the next crossover, she was screaming at him that he owes her an apology because she doesn\u2019t cheat. She told him he\u2019s a \u201cthief\u201d for \u201cstealing a point\u201d from her. And she kept not asking<\/em> for an apology from him but demanding<\/em> one. She was totally crazy and relentless, and it was one hundred percent verbal abuse, which is also a code violation. So, that third<\/em> one resulted in a loss of a game. So when she lost that game, she went literally berserk!<\/p>\n Serena Williams, at her finest.<\/p><\/div>\n Carlos was totally right in all three violations. And Serena\u2019s been around long enough that she should know the rules. Heck, if I<\/em> know the rules, and I\u2019m just a spectator<\/em>, you would think that a player who\u2019s been at the top of the game for over two decades now would know the rules of the game herself.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s the thing about Serena\u2014she thinks she\u2019s above everybody else and that she should always get special consideration. Several of my friends asked me if she turned this into a racial situation, but she couldn\u2019t do that this time because Naomi is also black! So she said that she\u2019s getting this treatment because she\u2019s a woman<\/em>, (as opposed to the males<\/em> on tour,) which I totally predicted she would do. (And she invoked being a mom as part of it, too, saying she would never cheat because she\u2019s a mom. She always has an excuse for everything, which I\u2019ll tell you a little more about tomorrow.)<\/p>\n And then, unfortunately, some of the ESPN commentators, (who are all pro-Serena because they feel that she\u2019s the main draw in women\u2019s tennis in America, and therefore they have financial interests in her, so they feel that they have to kiss her butt, which is a much bigger topic for another day,) said that the umpires should make judgment<\/em> calls, instead of actual<\/em> calls, so that Carlos Ramos should have just given her more warnings. But the game doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/p>\n As I pointed-out in a tweet right after this happened, (and one of the ESPN commentators, Jason Goodall, was smart enough to \u201cborrow,\u201d) when Serena\u2019s coach said “everyone” gets secret coaching in the matches, so he did nothing wrong, the situation is analogous to speeding. Speeding is also illegal, but everyone does it<\/em>, too.\u00a0 But if you’re the one who gets caught, you have to pay the price! You can’t say that so-and-so didn\u2019t get caught, so that you shouldn\u2019t, either! When coaches do illegal coaching, and players break their rackets, and they abuse the umps, and a whole bunch of other offenses, as well, they take the chance of getting penalized. It\u2019s all on them<\/em>, not on the officials<\/em>. Dot, dash, end of story!!!<\/p>\n Naomi Osaka’s sad face after she had just won her first Major Championship! Photo by Karen salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n The worst part of the whole horrible story is that Serena\u2019s obnoxious behavior ruined the experience for poor, sweet, twenty-year-old Naomi, who had just won her first Major title!!! She won it fair and square, but the Serena drama overshadowed the Championship for her. Of course. [Note: That pic at the top of this page is US Open first time Champion Naomi Osaka being consoled<\/em> by her mother, who should have been happily congratulating<\/em> her instead. Shame. You can see the stress on her mother’s forehead. Photo by Karen Salkin.]<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s Serena<\/em> who owes Naomi<\/em> an apology, not Carlos<\/em> owing Serena<\/em> one. Serena is disgusting.<\/p>\n To re-cap: The ump was totally correct.\u00a0 There are rules, and he followed them.\u00a0 Serena did not.\u00a0 And the idiots who say he shouldn\u2019t have done that are wrong.\u00a0 Should the ump not<\/em> follow the rules???\u00a0 That\u2019s his job<\/em>!!!\u00a0 Those people are basically implying that Serena should have gotten special treatment.\u00a0 If that\u2019s so, why even have umpires anymore?\u00a0 Just let it be a free-for-all. (But if Naomi<\/em> had been the player to do all that, and the guy didn\u2019t<\/em> call it, these same fools would have had something to say about how unfair that was to Serena.)<\/p>\n I have to add that I used to have the utmost respect for USTA President, Katrina Adams, (whose reply to one of my tweets last year was special for me,) but no more. She runs the US Open, but she stuck-up for oh-so-wrong Serena Williams over her own \u201cGold Badge\u201d umpire!!! (Only two dozen umps have that highest status, which means that he or she is one of the best.)\u00a0 Katrina should have pointed-out that rules are not<\/em> judgement calls–they’re rules<\/em>! Shame on her for that.<\/p>\n Perhaps even worse, when she was presiding over the trophy presentation after Naomi had won, she actually stated to the crowd that this was \u201cnot the outcome we were looking for.\u201d\u00a0 Hmmm. Perhaps she really did<\/em> mean that the match had this Serena controversy, but if so, that was one of the poorest choice of words ever. And now she<\/em> owes Naomi an apology, as well. But you\u2019ll never hear Naomi ask anyone for one.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>