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In the final of the US Open against Naomi Osaka at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday, with a 24th Grand Slam title in play, Serena Williams stood in the field calling the referee of the robber chair.
That's not how Williams, 36, was perhaps the greatest player in her sport, at a party that was to be a celebration of her career and her return to the top of tennis a year after she gave birth . .
After Osaka dominated the first run, another sign that it would not be a coronation for Williams arrived early in the second, when she received a warning for receiving help from her coach in the stands.
A few games later, Williams slammed his racket and broke it. This generated a penalty point in favor of Osaka. Always on the lookout for the previous warning, Williams attacked the chair umpire and, as tensions mounted on the pitch and in the crowd, she received a match penalty that gave a 5-3 lead in Osaka, a title match.
In a few minutes, instead of exchanging love at first sight with Osaka, a 20-year-old girl born in Japan and who grew up idolizing, Williams had a lively conversation with the tournament's umpire. . "There are men who do worse," she said, "but because I am a woman, because I am a woman, you will take it away from me? This is not correct. "
For Williams, it was all too familiar. She has had a series of meetings with officials at the Open, the Grand Slam event that she has won six times, but she has also been eliminated four times in games with controversial arbitrations.
Williams did not recover in time to save Saturday's game, won by Osaka 6-2, 6-4. But as the whistles and whistles fell on the pitch at the awards ceremony, Williams resumed his role as the leader of the sport, urging fans to appreciate the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam title.
"Let's give everyone the credit they deserve and do not do it anymore," she told fans.
Pam Shriver, an American finalist who opened ESPN in 1978 in the final, said Williams' claim that sexism contributed to the severe penalty was "a fair catch today."
It was unfortunate, she said, given the importance of the match that the referee could not restore in the order.
"One of the main roles of a referee is to keep order in a match, and the order has been lost," Shriver said. "Serena has a certain reproach because she could not let go. She felt aggrieved. "
On Twitter, Billie Jean King, one of the founders of the WTA Tour, supported Williams by writing, "When a woman is emotional, she is" hysterical "and she is penalized for it. When a man does the same thing, he is "frank" and there are no repercussions. Thank you, @Serena Williams, to call this double standard. "
Williams said she hoped that her stance would allow women to be freer in the future.
"Having to go through this is just an example for the next person who has emotions and wants to express themselves and wants to be a strong woman," she said. "They will be allowed to do it for today. Maybe it did not work for me, but it will work for the next person. "
Women's tour tournaments allow coaches to come on the field during changes to instruct players; Williams is one of the few players who has never used coaching in the field. At the Open, as well as at other Grand Slam tournaments, booth coaching, verbally or by signals, is not allowed.
In a statement issued after the match, officials of the American Tennis Association explained that once the chair umpire had made his decisions, they were irreversible.
Williams vigorously contested each of the three decisions; the violation of the frame seemed to be the most shocking for her. It was the first of his career.
"I do not cheat to win; I would rather lose, "she told the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos.
Williams coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted he was trying to give him instructions but said she had not seen him. Williams also seemed to indicate that she did not see the gesture that caused the violation.
Shriver and Mouratoglou pointed out that referees generally gave an unofficial warning, not a violation of the code, after the first glimpse of a possible coaching.
Mouratoglou said he understood Williams' plight over his decision to acquire an illicit benefit.
"Being called a cheater, she felt even more humiliated," Mouratoglou said. "She thought, 'What will my daughter think of me?' They call me a cheater. That's how she lived it.
Ramos, who works mainly on the men's round, is known to be one of the strictest referees, including giving Rafael Nadal time, which is evolving slowly and where other referees are more lax.
"I say it sadly, but it's a referee who scrutinizes me more and who fixes me more", Nadal said Ramos after a game at the Open de France last year. "He also put pressure on coaching. I have respect for him and all I ask is that it be reciprocal.
On Saturday, Williams repeatedly told Ramos that she wanted an apology.
"To attack my character, it's something that's wrong," said Williams at a change. "It's wrong, you're attacking my character, yes, you are, you owe me an apology, you'll never, never, ever be in another of my courts as long as you live." the liar.
She concluded, "You've stolen a point, you're a thief too.
This remark triggered the violation of the code for verbal abuse, defined in the regulation as "a statement concerning an official, an opponent, a sponsor, a spectator or any other person implying dishonesty or derogatory, insulting or abusive".
The tournament officials 'statement indicated that Ramos' decision on verbal abuse – ultimately a judgment (unlike racket abuse, which was automatic) – was final and unreturnable.
At her post-game press conference, when asked if she was going to change anything, Williams said, "I can not stay here and say I would not say it is a thief, because I thought But I have seen other men call several other referees. I am fighting here for women's rights and for women's equality and for all kinds of things. For me to say "thief" and take a game, it gave me the impression that it was a sexist remark. He never took a match with a man because he said "thief." "
"For me, it hurts me," she continued. "But I will continue to fight for women and fight for equality."
It was not the first time in this year's tournament that officials had been called sexists. French player Alizé Cornet received an unsportsmanlike conduct warning for taking off her mats after she inadvertently demoted him; The Open changed this rule the next day after being scandalized by the episode.
Williams' assertion that players are more controlled than men is hard to prove. At the opening of this year, men received 23 fines for violating the code, compared to nine for women.
Most infamous sports kids were men and they were often punished for bad behavior. John McEnroe, the best-known instigator, was frequently put to the test during his career. He was disqualified from a fourth round match at the 1990 Australian Open after a series of explosions.
Fabio Fognini, another serial offender, was kicked out of the US Open last year for making rough remarks in Italian about a chair umpire in a first-round match.
For Williams, the problems are more complex, given his controversial history at the tournament.
In 2004, Williams lost a quarter-final against Jennifer Capriati largely because of a series of erroneous waivers by chair umpire Mariana Alves. The tournament apologized to Williams and introduced the Hawkeye revision technology the following year.
In 2009, in a semifinal match against Kim Clijsters, Williams was charged with a foul in the back by the arbitrary sitter Shino Tsurubuchi and threatened to push a tennis ball into Tsurubuchi's throat. Chair Umpire Louise Engzell imposed a point penalty on Williams, and since it was a point of match for Clijsters at the time, the penalty ended the match.
In 2011, in the final against Samantha Stosur, Williams celebrated what she thought was a winning shot too early, then reacted indignantly at an obstacle judged by chair umpire Eva Asderaki. "Williams lost that match too.
But Saturday's call about illicit coaching provoked a different reaction, seeming to hurt Williams more than anger.
As she addressed the crowd during her concession speech at the awards ceremony, Williams acknowledged her long experience in New York when she thought she was going to talk about her latest triumph in a sport. that she led for nearly two decades. .
"I hope to continue and play here again, but we'll see," she said with a small, sacred laugh. "It's hard for me here, but thank you very much."
Christopher Clarey contributed to the report.
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