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Naomi Osaka surprised Serena Williams to win the US Open, but Williams's heated argument with the chair umpire overshadowed the result.
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Serena Williams lost the women's final of the US Open Saturday after a controversial dispute with the chair umpire.(Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports)

NEW YORK – There was no question of winning the US Open for Novak Djokovic during his stint with the media after defeating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3 on Sunday.

A British journalist asked Djokovic if he wanted to give his opinion on what happened during the controversial final of the women's final with Serena Williams and referee Carlos Ramos. A fine of $ 17,000 was imposed on Williams Sunday for three different offenses in the second leg of the match: a warning, a penalty after breaking a racket and the loss of a match for verbal abuse against the referee.

Naomi Osaka won her first Grand Slam title of her career in this 6-2, 6-4 final, taking away Williams' 24th Grand Slam title, which would have equaled Margaret Court's all-time record.

"Listen, I love Serena, first of all," Djokovic said. "I really felt for her yesterday – a difficult thing for a chair umpire to handle too – we need to empathize with him – everyone was in a very tricky situation yesterday. Serena was crying, Naomi was crying, it was really hard.

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After evaluating the details, he offered his own point of view.

"But I personally think that the chair umpire might not have had to push Serena to the limit, especially in a Grand Slam final," he said. "Maybe just changed – maybe not, but it changed the course of the match – it was, in my opinion, perhaps useless – we all go through our emotions, especially when you fight for a trophy Grand Slam.

"I feel just right, as Serena said yesterday at the closing ceremonies, Osaka deserves her time, and Serena knows that I love her, she really inspires everyone, she's always so dedicated and committed. in this sport. " for me and for many tennis players, men and women from all over the world, this inspires a lot. "

Earlier in the day, the WTA issued a statement from its CEO, Steve Simon, in part as follows:

Yesterday also put forward the question of whether different standards were applied to men and women in match arbitration.The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance to the emotions expressed by men and women, is committed to working with sport to ensure that all players are treated the same way.We do not believe this was done last night. "

When Simon's position was relayed to Djokovic, he disagreed with the statement.

"I do not think this is the time and place to really tackle other topics," said Djokovic. "I do not see things like Mr. Simon does, I do not really think so, I think men and women are, you know, treated this way or the other way. to generalize, really, I do not see that it's really necessary to debate it. "

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