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UMPIRES CONSIDERING BOYCOTT OF SERENA WILLIAMS’ MATCHES

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The dust has not settled yet on Saturday’s heated exchanges the defeated Serena Williams had in the US Open final.

The celebrated tennis star lost to Naomi Osaka in a match marred by conflict and controversy.

According to Times of London, umpires are considering boycotting matches involving Serena Williams for her behavior and a lack of support from the tennis world for chair umpire Carlos Ramos, who was on the receiving end of a heated outburst from the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

A source told Times of London that some umpires believe that Ramos was “thrown to the wolves for simply doing his job and was not willing to be abused for it” and that they are considering “to refuse any match assignments involving Williams until she apologizes for vilifying Ramos and calling him a ‘liar’ and a ‘thief.’”

Williams was assessed three code violations during the loss to Osaka. Ramos warned her against receiving coaching early in the second set, which Williams protested.

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A frustrated Williams later smashed her racket and accused Ramos of sexism for assessing penalties that she believes he would not have given to a man.

Williams called Ramos a thief and demanded an apology. The third code violation resulted in a game penalty for Williams.

Williams explained her anger in the post-match media conference.

“He never took a game from a man because he said ‘thief,’” Williams said.

“For me it blows my mind, but I’m going to continue to fight for women. The fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person.”

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Williams was later fined $17,000 for her outburst.

 

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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