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Serena Williams was not raised to play tennis like everyone else.
Trained in relative isolation on the public courts of Compton, California, with her older sister Venus, she learned the game from self-taught parents who rejected the traditional junior circuit, convinced that their girls' performances would one day speak.
Throughout his 23-year professional career, Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles, breaking Steffi Graf's record in the Open Era, and four Olympic gold medals in a record-breaking list. previous. It has also redefined women's tennis, paving the way for a new era of power, athleticism and skill.
Along the way, she spoke out against what she sees as an unfairness on the ground – not always the tone that the sport traditionally expects of her female champions. She pushed the boundaries with some officials and crossed the line with others, such as when she threatened to hit a line in the throat of a line judge for fouling a half-foot. -final of the US Open 2009. one point, the match and a record fine of $ 82,500.
[Jenkins: Power of Williams and Osaka is overshadowed by an umpire’s power play]
Williams' last rash came in the second leg of Saturday's US Open final – a sharp tirade against chair referee Carlos Ramos, who earned his third penalty of the match; it cost her a part when she played two games, of the defeat to Naomi Osaka, 20, who was by far the most stable and best player; and Sunday, a $ 17,000 fine.
After Williams' wrath had dissipated and the trophies were awarded, Williams played peace, calling the New York crowd to stop booing and celebrating Osaka, who cried after his triumph 6-2 and 6-4 – Williams started a late conversation on two issues that tennis has been dodging for too long:
● A rule book that badly needs to be revised and applied capriciously – especially on widely violated offenses such as foot fouls and unauthorized workouts. (This was a seldom called coaching offense that triggered the first strike against Williams on Saturday.)
● A double standard for both men and women in terms of decorum on the field, Williams was the victim of his third offense Saturday in the final for criticizing Ramos and called him a "thief." the tournament to change shirts on the field in stifling conditions – just like the right of male players. As Williams said in his post-match interview: "I've 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. . . . He never took a man's game because he said "thief". "
Former champion Billie Jean King, who used her Hall of Fame career to defend equal rights, thanked Williams via social media for making a late tweet, "When a woman is Emotive, she is hysterical. When a man does the same thing, he is "frank" and there are no repercussions. Thank you, @serenawilliams, for calling this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same thing.
[Perspective: Dignity was vanquished at the U.S. Open. Williams and Osaka showed us how to recover with grace.]
Nearly 24 hours later, the Women's Tennis Association acknowledged Williams' point in a statement released Sunday night. "The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the norms of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men and women and commits to working with sport to make sure that all players are treated the same way. We do not believe this has been done [Saturday] night."
Williams is hardly blameless in the events that led to his match penalty, but Ramos either. As a chair umpire, he had a choice between defusing what was quickly becoming an overheating situation and exasperating fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Instead of giving Williams what's called a "progressive warning" after his second offense (for racket abuse), he chose to apply the maximum penalty and match him for what he considered verbal abuse.
All in all, it was a circus at the limit where Ramos and Williams played the bad actors and the tournament champion, Osaka, was deprived of well-deserved joy.
From this sinister incident, Williams can become a champion of another genre, pushing the boundaries of her sport by shedding light on a double standard that for decades has been masquerading as a tradition and hiding words such as respect "and" decorum. "
By calling on Ramos to punish her for far less vulgar language than the desecration of Roger Federer and the bad guys John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors on the officials before him, Williams forced tennis to wonder why the gross competitive rage, no polite and often ugly as men.
"Sport certainly has a double standard in perception," said former top five James Blake, 38, now tournament director of the Miami Open. "For example, women are criticized for speaking when you look at the headlines; men may be considered "passionate" or "fighters" in similar situations. But I did not believe [the double standard] stretched to real rules. This hope was shattered when I first opened in the United States when I saw the decision against Cornet and it was happening in Serena.
On Sunday, Blake said in an e-mail that he was not tolerating bad behavior, noting that Williams deserved the second penalty for breaking his racket. But he described the punishment of verbal abuse as a "very harsh and unnecessary judgment".
[Opinion: Williams was blamed for defending herself. That’s nothing new for black women]
"If Carlos Ramos thought she was going too far, he could easily say it as a warning and let her know that if she continued in this way, it would be a penalty," Blake noted. "It's a courtesy given to almost all professionals, but for one reason or another, not the greatest player of all time on the biggest stage? It's worrying for me.
Tennis has long had distinct rules and expectations for women – most of which, throughout the history of the sport, have been proudly promoted as tradition issues.
In 1884, the winner of Maud Watson's victory in the first Wimbledon women's event was not paid. his second took away a silver mirror and a set of brushes. While male players of the time wore trousers, women participated in long skirts and corsets.
Sport has of course evolved with time and common sense.
But the significant gains made by women – especially with regard to equal pay – have been demanded and acquired rather than freely granted.
King, who earned 750 British pounds (about $ 969) for his single Wimbledon title in 1968 versus Rod Laver's $ 2,000 equivalent ($ 2,584 equivalent), launched the campaign for equal pay. It was Venus Williams who, in an editorial in the London Times in 2006, pleaded for the end of the following year by persuading Wimbledon to join the other three majors of the sport.
In other respects, Serena has been the driving force behind the change in tennis.
Thanks to her backlashes and explosions of service, she forced her competitors to be stronger, faster, more fit and more competent.
She broadened the notions of what female tennis champions look like and how they should dress – but only, as she explained in an interview with ESPN's Common for the undefeated in 2016, after learning to adopt his muscular physique.
"At one time, I did not feel very comfortable with my body because I felt like I was too strong. I had to take a second and think, "Who said I'm too strong? This organ has allowed me to be the best player I can be, "said Williams, who was criticized by officials of the French Tennis Federation for wearing a tight-fitting jersey early in the day. 39; summer. Life-threatening blood clots – which they found "disrespectful" for the game.
Williams has evolved in other ways during her career, from the 19-year US Open champion focused on amassing more titles to the 23-year-old Grand Slam champion and 36-year-old mother who tries, as a as an athlete, to talk to something bigger about women. Push the boundaries of what's possible for new moms, moms and women who strive to reach the rules of the game.
It's easy to challenge his behavior at the American final, destroying his racket, raging on the chair umpire and making a fit that intentionally or unintentionally could have derailed a young opponent who had gone well beyond him. .
But tennis is better for its excellence, as evidenced by the evaluations of the women's final of the night (up 32% compared to the women's final of the US Open 2017, contested by the Americans Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys and 79% against Czech Karolina Pliskova).
And by invoking the double standard of sport on acceptable passion (and rage) on the court, Williams makes a point that requires treatment.
Ava Wallace contributed from New York.
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