tennis...spoiler alert, and anger alert

[DonCoquixote]

Ok I post it down here so that people who were warned of a spoiler will have less excuses to say they were not warned.

OK, what happened is a travesty, and oh yes, it is full of RACISM and SEXISM. Long story short, Serena did something that has been done for DECADES, and that many male players are known to do, get hand signals from a coach. The referee went ahead and deducted a point, then when Serena complained, took ANOTHER Point.

Look, I have seen even in DU where people rail on Serena. Sorry that a white sport has a pair of twin black sisters that are currently the BEST IN THE WORLD. Sorry a lot of white tennis players whine about it! Sorry that she is not some white male that can be allowed to be a (A**hole) and get praised for it (yes John McEnroe, yes Jimmy Connors, I am pointing at you.) Of course, white males are allowed to be jerks in sports, whether it is Tim Tebow praying in the field, Tom Brady inflating footballs, or any number of examples, but the minute a player of color, especially a female, complains, then the guillotine blade is dropped!

Laugh if you will, but the message is being sent. Kapernick notwithstanding, the rich white males who run sports, who use it to control the "working class" white males, are going to send a message that reminds players fo color that they better stay sweet, and of course, it does nto help that Trump will support said measures!

[Trust Buster]

1. Translation: Serena Williams lost 6 - 2, 6 - 4 in straight sets. Let us not be a sore loser.

[LisaM]

2. I was disappointed with the crowd.

Osaka was playing her heart out and didn't deserve to be treated so badly by the audience.

I don't think Serena was deducted a point for the first violation (the coaching, which the coach admitted he did after the match). It was for throwing her racquet. The game that was awarded to Osaka was.for Serena's continued berating of the umpire.

Meanwhile, her poor opponent was booed by the crowd afterwards and had to accept the trophy in tears. I could not believe what I was seeing. Then, after all the harm she caused, Serena tries to act all big-hearted by telling the crowd to calm down. It was a no-win for everyone involved.

Also, not that it really matters, but Venus and Serena aren't twins.

[stopbush]

3. Er, I don't think Osaka is a white person.

As far as coaching from the stands: like running a red light, it’s not a problem until it is. This is on Serena’s coach, who was flagrantly violating the rules. He admitted it in a post-match interview. Was the umpire to look the other way? Would that have been fair to Osaka?

You also have the sequence wrong. Here’s what happened:

1. Coaching from stands earns a warning

2. Serena breaks racket earns a code violation and a game point awarded

3. Serena calls umpire a thief, code violation for verbal abuse and a game awarded

[MiniMe]

5. They do most of the time.

[MiniMe]

4. She got a warning about coaching, but he didn't take point away for that

I don't think she even saw it. Later, she played a really bad service game and she broke her racket. She got a game point penalty for racket abuse. She was still arguing with the ref about the coaching, and called the umpire a thief, that was the third violation and that was a game penalty.

I think the thing that bothered Serena the most was the coaching violation.

[LisaM]

8. At one point she said he was giving her a thumbs up.

So I think she did see it. Also, if you look at the video, he gives a nod to someone after making the gesture. I assume it was Serena.

[MiniMe]

12. I think it was all the way across the court.

I believe her that she didn't she what the motion was. But once they hand out a code violation, they can't take it back. The real questionable was the game violation. I remember when the men (McEnroe and Lendl and others I'm sure) used to curse the umpires out, and they never got code violations.

[LisaM]

13. So I was just watching on the tennis channel.

What got her in trouble was saying "you are" over and over again. I remembered back when my boyfriend was an ASA softball umpire, that was the bright line that would get players kicked out... instead of saying "that was a stike'" saying, "you are out of your mind" ( or whatever). It's a nuance for sure, but in that context it makes more sense.

[Tipperary]

6. No. I am a huge Serena fan. Both players are black.

I have watched tennis for years. The umpire should have warned her, but there was no racism. Come on.

[Hav]

7. If I remember correctly,

McEnroe's outbursts weren't particularly popular. Tennis is the one sport where this behaviour is usually not well received. The other examples are just as bad. Brady got punished and certainly didn't receive praise from the supporters of other teams.
Even if it were true, it would be the kind of whataboutism we criticize the Repubs for. Because it is just not sound logic and it doesn't excuse your own bad behaviour. No, people don't like aholes. They become aholes though when they boo the opponent of the person that broke the rules.

[LisaM]

9. I think Osaka earned a lot of fans, though.

She certainly earned me as one today.

[northoftheborder]

10. Sorry i missed this unhappy tennis story.

For some reason, the channel carrying it today was on the blink, so I was wondering how it turned out. Hope they will do a rerun. If her coach did this, it is inexcusable - he's too experienced to get away with this behavior. Very sorry to hear the crowd took it out on Osaka.

[mr_lebowski]

11. With as much REAL RACISM as there clearly is in this world ...

I'll leave it at that ...

[wasupaloopa]

14. Reading the replies it looks like something different

happened

[Iggo]

15. McEnroe and Connors were 40 years ago.

That shit don't fly these days, and you know it.

(Oh and "Everybody does it" and "I don't cheat" in the same tirade? She's more like Tom Brady than you realize...lol.)

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

19. I agree, the comparison to players' behavior from decades ago is not valid . . .

Moreover, while McEnroe was wrongly allowed to get away with a lot of offensive behavior that, in my mind, amounted to gamesmanship in many instances, even back in those days there was a limit to how much that behavior was tolerated. McEnroe was suspended at least twice in his playing career and once was defaulted out of a Grand Slam tournament (the 1990 Australian Open) for his abusive conduct on the court.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. McEnroe was a loud mouthed jerk. So is Serena.

[RhodeIslandOne]

17. Congrats to Naomi Osaka!

It’s gotta be intimidating when the best player of all time and all the money in the sport is working the chair to catch every break much like when Tom Brady whines to the refs because he was touched. But it didn’t matter. It was clearly her day.

[USALiberal]

18. FFS this is silly. Serena lost her temper. And Osaka is Japanese-Haitian so nice try. nt