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Serena Williams

IndoMike

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i have great respect for Serena : she has overcome many hardships and had a tremendous career. However, her antics at the US Open at the weekend were totally unacceptable in my opinion
and she allowed her ego to take over. There is no reason to believe that the highly respected umpire was prejudiced against her in any way : he was just applying the law. Serena's behavior
completely devalued the Final and ruined Osaka's moment of glory and joy. Serena should be ashamed of herself as she made it all about her.
 

Alistair20000

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A very voluble lady on Sky News said Serena had been subject to unfair treatment because she was a woman, black and with a large BMI. The punishment would not have been meted out to a slim, white lady player or a male player.

Whatever the truth of that, I found her behaviour very distasteful when a more dignified protest could have been registered. (n)
 
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Antony Moxey

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Isn’t she a black woman who’s recently had a baby? She makes sure she tells us in every single interview she gives.
 

Banksy

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Some of these ( not all ) so called sportsmen/women have far too high opinions of themselves I'm afraid.Not helped by the way the public build them up as gods.Include some of the presenters in that too.
 

IndoMike

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Her argument was that umpires treat men more tolerantly than they do women, yet she herself showed no respect to her female opponent. Imagine that Osaka will never win a Grand Slam again and that will be her abiding memory. I have to say Serena was peed off cos she was struggling to win yet desperately wanted to.
 

Jason H

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Lest we forget, this was not the first time she'd had a massive hissy fit in a GS final when she was losing.
 

Terryhall

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I think its fair to say she had a massive diva overreaction and hasn't come out of it looking particularly well.

I think it's also fair to say that the umpire applied the strict letter of the law in the punishments he gave.

I think it's also fair to ask whether a male player would have been subject to the same treatment, especially given what happened with Kyrgios (of all players!) earlier in the same tournament.

Ultimately inconsistency of referees/umpires is a fact of sport and not all will apply the rules in the same way - but this case does seem to be a particularly extreme application of the rules and it crertainly had an impact on the result.

In summary Serena doesn't come out of it looking at all good and neither does the umpire in my opinion, but that doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't have a point about gender bias. The fact that a lot of prominent female tennis players and the WTA have spoken out in support of her position suggests that this might be a high profile example of something that goes on very regularly on the tour.
 

Jason H

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The fact that women at Grand Slams get paid the same as men for doing 60% of the work suggests there is indeed a gender bias in top level Tennis.
 

ramone

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If i had to agree with you we would both be wrong
Isn’t she a black woman who’s recently had a baby? She makes sure she tells us in every single interview she gives.
Its like she is the only woman to have a baby and go back to work.
 

Terryhall

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The fact that women at Grand Slams get paid the same as men for doing 60% of the work suggests there is indeed a gender bias in top level Tennis.
I see what you did there.
 
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