Source: Julian Finney / Getty
Serena Williams took an L in the US Open Finals yesterday (Sept. 9), but that’s what’s even the biggest drama. The GOAT tennis player was disrespected and accused of cheating by the umpire, and she’s now even been fined $17,000.
The day started off ass a glorious one for Black girl magic with Williams once again in the finals of a Grand Slam tournament while her opponent was Japanese and Haitian tennis star Naomi Osaka.
But things went left when the umpire basically accused Williams of cheating. The ump hit her with a coaching violation early in the 2nd set. She disputed this, then caught another violation for smashing her racket. Still miffed at the 1st violation and then docked a point, Williams went off.
She was cool about it though, and the ref hit her with another violation, this time for verbal abuse. That verbal abuse included calling the umpire a “thief.” Now go Google some of John McEnroe’s epic blackouts, and see how many violations he was given. Also, take note of the language he used, often.
Now, to make the blatant sexism only worse, Williams has reportedly been fined $17,000 in total for the violations. Nike will probably pick up the tab, but that’s not the point (actually it will come out of her tournament winning $1.85M). The double standard and Williams’ ongoing mistreatment despite being the best to ever do it looks blatant. And she said so during the post-game presser.
Serena Williams deserves better. Naomi Osaka, who had a great moment ruined, deserves better. Needless to say, Twitter has been going in. Peep some of her supporters in gallery—later for the haters (but we documented some for archival purposes).
Serena Williams Disrespected By Umpire In US Open Finals, Fined $17K, Twitter Reacts was originally published on hiphopwired.com
