Right, well I didn't actually get around to doing any posts on this
year's US Open tennis tournament, which is of course the last major of
the season but I will do a post covering both the men and ladies finals.
So,
in tradition of things I will start with the ladies final and this is
quite an interesting and controversial one, so let's take a look at how
it all went...
LADIES FINAL - Serena Williams vs Naomi Osaka
Well,
the match itself was between first time finalist, Naomi Osaka, who was
the first female Japanese player to play in a grand slam final and of
course the legendary Serena Williams, who was looking for her 24th major
title and it was her 9th final in New York. So, on paper the odds were
hugely stacked again Noami coming into this match.
However...the
match itself had a few twists in its tail and in the first set, we saw
Serena Williams get outplayed by the young Japanese player Osaka, as she
broke Serena's serve twice to take the opening set. This sparked the
possibility of a big upset as Noami appeared to be unfazed by who she
was facing down the other end of the court.
In the
second set however, things got alot more interesting when Serena at the
start of the second game was handed a code violation by the match
umpire, Carlos Ramos, for allegedly receiving coaching from the stands
by her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, which Serena denied. Serena then went
on to break Naomi's serve to go 3-1 up however she then served two
double faults and Naomi broke back on the next point, which cause Serena
to smash her racquet in frustration, which got her another code warning
from Ramos. At this point, Ramos also docked Serena a point in the
match, which made her furious and she argued with the umpire and said
that he owes her an "apology" and further added to this "you will never
do another one of my matches!".
However the controversy
continued on after Naomi held to go 3-3 she went on to break Serena's
serve again to lead 4-3. Serena then carried on her verbal tirade at
Ramos as she yelled at him "you will never, ever be on another court of
mine as long as you live!!!" as well as call him a "liar!" and a
"thief!". This then lead to Ramos giving Serena a third code violation,
this time for verbal abuse and he docked her a game, which gave Noami
the 5-3 lead and just a game away from her first grand slam title.
Serena however managed to hold onto her next service game to force Naomi
to serve out the championship, which the young 20 year managed with
ease as she claimed her first grand slam title with an impressive 6-2,
6-4 victory.
THOUGHTS
Well, it
really has to be said for me (and probably quite a few others) that this
matched was remembered for all the wrong reasons. Here we have a great
new name in ladies tennis in Naomi Osaka, who here really showed that
she is a future star and has the potential to win more majors in years
to come. However, this was all totally overshadowed by the chaos caused
during the match by Serena when she argued with the umpire over code
violations, which ended the tournament in a real sour atmosphere that
saw the New York crowd booing throughout the trophy presentation. This
also even saw poor Naomi Osaka reduced to tears during the presentation
although to give Serena a little credit she did call for the crowd to
stop booing and congratulate Naomi.
And while maybe
Serena might have had a point in terms of disputing the code violation
handed out regarding alleged coaching between her and her coach, it
doesn't excuse her behaviour afterward where she continually berated the
umpire and called him names, which only inflamed the situation and made
things worse. And in doing so, Serena totally stole the limelight away
from Naomi Osaka, who on the night was the better player and right now
if anything, as the former tennis player, Greg Rusedski himself said,
she owes Naomi an apology for what happened that night. In the end the
match should have been remembered for Osaka's achievements and not
Serena Williams throwing a major strop (no-pun intended) that whipped up
a real frenzy and debate over the whole issue of sexism in ladies
tennis.
Now, there are of course some issues regarding
sexism in tennis I'm sure and even during the US Open tournament, the
French player, Alize Cornet, was handed a code violation for changing
her top as she had it on back to front, which would of course not been
an issue if it had been a man. However, I don't believe the umpire,
Carlos Ramos, can in all fairness be accused of being sexist towards
Serena Williams during the match as if anything he remained calm and
objective throughout even when Serena was screaming at him. In the end,
Serena on the night, was more like a kid throwing her toys out the pram
because she didn't get her way and surely it had nothing really to do
with sexism and victimisation at all. This may have been something she
has been a victim of throughout her life but if she thinks that's what
happened that night then I have to say she's dead wrong.
So,
for me this is a match that makes me angry as it sees one player
stealing the limelight from the other and in quite an unfair way. On the
night, Naomi Osaka was the better, more composed and above all more
MATURE player on court and its a great pity her achievements will be
sidelined by maelstrom that Serena Williams kicked up.
And
to add a bit more support to Naomi, I think she played a terrific match
and her composure throughout was very admirable and even in the trophy
presentation, holding back tears, she did her very best to keep things
together. So for me, Naomi deserves nothing but praise for her
performance in the match and indeed her whole attitude and demeanour
throughout. Infact it was easy to see the major potential that Naomi had
as a player as far back as Indian Wells this year when she won the
title there, which is one of the biggest titles on the tour outwith the
majors (and she even gave a really charming speech during the
presentation as she got flustered trying to remember who to thank!). So,
to see Naomi go on to win her first major, was no real surprise and
let's hope she will continue to win more in the future.
However,
its still a great shame that the aftermath of this match has really
more been about the whole debate of sexism in tennis and how it appears
that men are treated more fairly then the women. However, if you watch
enough tennis then you will know that men have also been handed out code
violations on a fairly regular basis during tennis matches. Not only
that but male players have been disqualified from matches in the past
such as John McEnroe at the Australian Open back in 1990 and David
Nalbandian at Queens club in London back in 2012. Not only that, Grigor
Dimitrov in 2016 was handed out two code violations for racquet abuse in
a final he lost to Diego Schwartzman and he went on to smash another
racquet at 5-0 to hand the match to his opponent. So, code violations
and disqualifications does happen in men's matches and not just ladies
ones, so to blame it all on sexism in this ladies final is frankly
nonsense.
SIGN OFF
Anyway
that's my tuppence thrown in over this ladies final match, which has
been a very interesting one but its a great pity that it will be
remembered for the wrong reasons rather than the right ones. Naomi Osaka
is the new US Open champion and that is a great achievement and she
deserves more attention for that alone than Serena Williams throwing a
strop during that match that kicked off a whole hoopla that will wage on
and on for some time to come.
So, that's it for now and I will be back fairly soon with my look at the men's final.
Till then its bye for now!
