Flipped over and caught the end of it today. Serena Williams going against Naomi Osaka for the title.

 

In short what drama. By all accounts Osaka had been out playing Serena at her own power game.

 

At some point Serena received a code warning for her coach, "Coaching" from the stands. Later on upset over something Serena broke her racquet and received a second code violation warning and a point penalty.

 

Fuming over the penalty after just having her serve broke to go down 4 to 3 in the second set, Serena called the chair umpire, "A thief." Which led to her third code violation and a game penalty, taking the set score from 4-3 to 5-3.

 

Serena was nearly in tears screaming at umpire and called for officials to come to the court. They explained the penalty to her and she served the next game.

 

Serena was a beast in that game quickly closing it to 5 to 4. But it all ended when Osaka quickly won the next service game, to win her first grand slam.

 

To her credit Serena was very cordial to Osaka.

 

Osaka apologized to the crowd through her tears that she was sorry it ended that way. The crowd was 90% for Williams but seemed to embrace Osaka after that.

 

What an ending!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get a game penalty.

 

Serena has had issues at the US Open before. It was there that she had the bit where she threatened to shove a ball down a linesman’s throat wasn’t it?

I was watching it. Serena kind of had a meltdown, or a series of meltdowns. The NY crowd really got behind her. I felt sorry for Naomi Osaka who won her first major and the first for a Japanese player. She did nothing wrong except to outplay Serena even before the incidents occurred. When the trophies were presented on the stand both players cried at times.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get a game penalty.

 

Serena has had issues at the US Open before. It was there that she had the bit where she threatened to shove a ball down a linesman’s throat wasn’t it?

 

I've seen game penalties before but never in a Grand Slam final. Serena just wouldn't drop it after receiving the point penalty on the 2nd warning and it cost her. I hated to see it, but I can't say I disagree with the call either.

I was watching it. Serena kind of had a meltdown, or a series of meltdowns. The NY crowd really got behind her. I felt sorry for Naomi Osaka who won her first major and the first for a Japanese player. She did nothing wrong except to outplay Serena even before the incidents occurred. When the trophies were presented on the stand both players cried at times.

 

I agree with all of this. Serena just needed to let it go at some point. She kept going at the umpire to the point of almost leaving him no choice to give her the game penalty. An important point that the announcers did not emphasize enough IMO is that the game penalty came on a game that Osaka was serving. She would have most likely won that game anyway. Now if the game penalty would have come on a game that Serena was serving, that would have been a huge penalty. The bottom line is that Naomi Osaka was the better player all night and deserved to win. I hate that all the controversy ruined the best day of her life. I do think Serena was classy after the match as she tried to get the crowd to stop booing and cheer on Naomi.

One thing that may come out of this is that they will allow coaching from the stands going forward. They almost have to let them coach or not let the coach in the stands during a match. From what all the tennis experts were saying after the match, all the coaches are coaching anyway so just make it legal so the chair umpires don't have to be mind readers and guess what is coaching and what is not.

I watched the match. I felt bad for both of them.

I watched the match. I felt bad for both of them.

 

I did too. It was rough seeing the crowd turn on Osaka, we'll not on her but so vocally for Serena. It had to take some joy out of her win. Serena is maybe the best ever, man or woman, I hate to see her stained by this episode too.

And yes, in case anyone is wondering, the cartoon that the guy from the Australian paper drew up is incredibly racist.

I was watching the match live. A few comments.

 

- Literally 15 minutes before Serena had her meltdown, I was telling my wife how I have never been a fan of hers because of her antics. Can't hate the game, obviously, but she is notorious for blaming everyone but herself in a loss. She is still must watch television and I am proud of her accomplishments.

- Serena was getting worked in this match. I have never seen a player work her like Naomi was from the baseline. She wasn't winning this match and it got to her.

- I agree in that men have probably said worse before. But many keep neglecting she was already penalized twice before Serena's sexism claim that resulted in the game penalty. For reference, men received 85 code violations at this year's US Open. Women received 22. That doesn't tell the whole story of course.

I would respect her more if she just came out and admitted she lost her cool instead of blaming everybody else amid claims of sexism, etc.