The big controversy in tennis today, two days after the 2018 U.S. Open Women’s Tennis Final is over, is whether or not Serena Williams deserved the penalties she received. For me personally, I have to take the position that she deserved what she got. Here’s how I look at it, issue by issue:
- The warning for coaching was not against Serena, but against her coach. Blame him, but the rules are that the player gets the warning. Digging deeper, Serena admits she saw her coach’s thumbs up signal. The coach admits that he was coaching with those signals. In fact he says that 100% of coaches, in 100% of the matches, cheat. Now, why wouldn’t that apply to Serena’s matches also? Sounds like a blanket admission of cheating. If the defense is that everyone else does it, then I’d like to get paid back for all the speeding tickets and other parking or other violations that I’ve ever had. I’ll be checking my mailbox and see if a check shows up. Somehow I doubt it.
Giving Thumbs Up?
- The first actual penalty of one point. No agrument here. It’s pretty automatic that when you smash your racquet as badly as she did, you are going to get a penalty.
Serena Throws Racquet at US Open
- The 3rdpenalty of one game is more controversial in my mind. Suffice to say though, that it was all under Serena’s control. Stabbing your finger at the Umpire and promising him he’ll never work one of your matches again is no way to conduct yourself. Calling him a thief doesn’t help either, though I think the finger stabbing is worse. I don’t like what happened, but I still think she deserved the penalty.
Serena Points at Umpire
Unfortunately, Serena didn’t have it in her to come back and win the match. Why not? She’s been down worse than that and came back. What a great, great story it would have been if she had willed herself to another title. As it is, Osake deserves all the credit, because despite all the drama, she stayed composed and probably would have won that match anyway. I think Serena knew that, too.
FOLLOW UP:
I only wish that there was some way to give a player a “cooling off period”. For example, before assessing a game penalty in a major slam, tell a player at this point that they can have a two minute break to collect themselves, otherwise if they step over that line again, a game penalty will be assessed. Let everyone know before the match that this is the rule. It’s a shame to see a match decided like that!
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