{"id":62920,"date":"2025-09-02T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/?p=62920"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:40:06","slug":"tennis-us-open-2025-controversies-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/tennis-us-open-2025-controversies-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"TENNIS: US OPEN 2025 CONTROVERSIES (SO FAR)"},"content":{"rendered":"

US OPEN 2025 CONTROVERSIES (SO FAR)<\/h1>\n

Now that we\u2019re down to the Quarterfinals of this year\u2019s US Open tennis tourney, it’s time to\u00a0discuss a few of the highlights, or perhaps more accurately, the lowlights, of the first week.<\/p>\n

There were a few headlines, some of which I\u2019ve already written about. (You can still read about the star-studded Mixed Doubles here: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/tennis-the-2025-us-open-began-yesterday<\/a>, and about one of the biggest first week controversies here: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/holiday-happy-labor-day-week-end-2025<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Now here are a few more:<\/p>\n

COCO GAUFF\u2019S SERVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s so mature now.) Someone really needs to step in and help her.<\/p>\n

But what chapped my hide was a statement Gavin made in an on-camera interview with Pam Shriver. He basically ragged on all his<\/em> previous clients and all her<\/em> previous coaches! He said, \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a lot of past memories in there that we\u2019re trying to overcome, but that\u2019s 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\u2019s see what she does, because as you know, there\u2019s nobody better athletically out here, she has the best backhand in the world, and her competitive spirit is unmatched.\u201d\u00a0And 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.<\/p>\n

\"Pam<\/a>

Pam Shriver’s interview with Coco Gauff’s new coach, Gavin MacMillan. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

Then just as I was seeing red about his rudeness, Patrick McEnroe, the studio host, asked commentator Brad Gilbert, \u201cSo what do you make of this new development for Coco?,\u201d because Brad had been her coach for a few years. (I\u2019m<\/em> adding: during which she finally got really successful, and won her first of two Majors.) Brad answered, \u201cWell, Coco\u2019s a perfectionist, and obviously, the way things were going in Cincinnati, third time she lost to Paolini, she probably felt like, \u2018You know what, I probably need to make a change.\u2019 And Gavin got let go by Sabalenka, and then all of a sudden, she felt like, \u2018I need to address this.\u2019\u201d So Brad discreetly let us know that this jerk did not<\/em> leave Sabalenka\u2014Sabalenka fired him<\/em>! (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.)<\/p>\n

By the way\u2014Mr. X erroneously thought that I don\u2019t like Coco. I actually do\u2014it\u2019s the jingoistic reporting<\/em> about her that I can\u2019t stand. And I admire her maturity.<\/p>\n

TAYLOR TOWNSEND\u2014JELENA OSTAPENKO DEBACLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, even before the controversy that began immediately\u00a0after<\/em> the second round match between Jelena Ostapenko and Taylor Townsend\u2014the two most out-of-shape-looking, most obnoxious women on the whole tour\u2014I couldn\u2019t wait to see how this one played out. I didn\u2019t know which one to root against<\/em> more! And I knew the end handshake would be something to witness.<\/p>\n

When Taylor was screaming at the spectators to make noise for her, the commentator said admiringly that she was \u201cwhipping the fans up to an absolute frenzy here.\u201d So, let me get this straight\u2014it\u2019s okay for an American<\/em> to do that, but not European<\/em> Daniil Medvedev???<\/p>\n

\"Taylor<\/a>

Taylor Townsend whipping the crowd into a frenzy, according to the commentator. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

In case you don\u2019t know about the controversy that began at the handshake and still<\/em> has not ended entirely, here\u2019s what happened: Jelena, who lost, admonished Taylor that she was rude to not have apologized when she won a point by a \u201cnet cord,\u201d which means it hit the top of the net, which helped it go over to win the point. All the players say \u201csorry\u201d when that happens for them, even though we viewers are sure they don\u2019t mean it. But it\u2019s just the polite thing to do, and is sort-of an unwritten rule of tennis. So Taylor nastily told Jelena that she \u201cdoesn\u2019t have to do anything,\u201d and an argument ensued, with Jelena, who\u2019s from Latvia, telling Taylor that she\u2019s \u201cclassless\u201d and \u201cuneducated.\u201d So, of course, people made it about race, which it was not<\/em>\u2014Jelena gets into it with just about everyone<\/em> she plays against, win or lose. I think she\u2019s universally disliked.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s far from always the case. And, even though I don\u2019t know either of them personally, I highly doubt that Jelena is racist. And that\u2019s because she\u2019s also been difficult with other players, all white, through the years. She\u2019s just an equal opportunity arguer.<\/p>\n

\"Jelena<\/a>

Jelena Ostapenko and Taylor Townsend arguing at the net after their match.<\/p><\/div>\n

Taylor should have just said she\u2019s sorry when Jelena pointed-out that she hadn\u2019t apologized for the net cord. All the players do a \u201csorry\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

And it turns-out, (as has been pointed-out by several people on social media,) that in languages around the world, \u201cuneducated\u201d 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.)<\/p>\n

So, Jelena issued a few apologies on-line, but people were still saying she\u2019s a racist. Her last apology explained what I just did about the definition of \u201cuneducated\u201d in her country.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, if Taylor were truly classy, upon hearing Jelena\u2019s most recent apology, she would have said she didn\u2019t 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\u2019m letting it go, as well.<\/p>\n

\"Jelena<\/a>

Jelena Ostapenko’s final apology and explanation. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

*[Note: Even though I have no idea of Taylor\u2019s level of schooling, she did<\/em> say a couple of not-bright things in the next few days. In one instance, she said \u201cincidences\u201d instead of the correct \u201cincidents.\u201d But even worse was this: In response to something Jelena said, Taylor said that she had beaten Ostapenko outside the US<\/em>, with, \u201cI beat her in Canada, which is outside the US, and I beat her in New York, which is outside the US.\u201d She thinks that New York is not<\/em> in the United States??? She may not be uneducated, but she was definitely absent that day!]<\/p>\n

[And FYI\u2014no 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<\/em> wanted to publish her whole statement, so they corrected her \u201coutside<\/em> the US\u201d to \u201c[inside<\/em>]\u201d (in brackets,) which shows it to be corrected, hoping that their readers don\u2019t know what brackets mean, or, if they do, they won\u2019t be able to figure-out which wrong word was changed.]<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering, I\u2019m the furthest thing from racist myself, which you\u2019d 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.)<\/p>\n

A CONTROVERSY NO ONE ELSE IS MENTIONING, BUT IS VERY IMPORTANT, IN MY OPINION<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The US Open’s signature beverage, the Honey Deuce. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019s third round match the other night, to give a bit of publicity to their foundation that is in Braun\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n

So, everyone at ESPN is extra<\/em>-aware of the evils of alcohol. Yet, every single one of the commentators has joked about or lauded drinking! Often they\u2019re 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<\/em> is, in general! Coco Vandeweghe even sang the praises of morning drinking<\/em>!!! That is soooo offensive! Someone needs to tell them all to stop, especially this<\/em> year!<\/p>\n

LETTING KIDS RUN DOWN TO \u201cAUTOGRAPH POSITION\u201d BEFORE THE MATCH IS OVER!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/a>

Kids at the bottom of the stands. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the big one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But this<\/em> year, they\u2019re 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<\/em> distracting.<\/p>\n

They need to just not allow it to happen in the first place! Dot, dash, end of story. It doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to figure that<\/em> one out.<\/p>\n

Next week, I\u2019ll do the wrap-up of the tourney, with some happier thoughts. I hope!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US OPEN 2025 CONTROVERSIES (SO FAR) Now that we\u2019re down to the Quarterfinals of this year\u2019s US Open tennis tourney, it’s time to\u00a0discuss a few of the highlights, or perhaps more accurately, the lowlights, of the first week. There were a few headlines, some of which I\u2019ve already written about. (You can still read about<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62920"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62969,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62920\/revisions\/62969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}