Serena Williams: Victim of Sexism or Sore Loser?

Hi, welcome to America Uncovered. I'm your host Chris Chappell. No one likes a sore loser. I'm definitely not one, since I've never lost anything in my life. What can I say? I'm pretty good at winning. And here's someone else who's really good at winning. Serena Williams. She's undeniably the greatest female tennis player in history. She's won 331 women's singles matches during Grand Slam competitions, an all-time record. And that's just one of her many accomplishments in her two-decade career. So is someone who is such a good winner, a good loser, too? Out of that astonishing US Open final, Serena Williams losing to Japan's Naomi Osaka following a coaching penalty, breaking her racket, and arguing with the chair umpire. Well that doesn't sound too great. But her loss became even more controversial when she accused the umpire of sexism. Here's how the match went down. Serena Williams lost the first set to Naomi Osaka, 6-2. Then in the second round, this happened. Code violation, coaching warning, this is Williams. Her coach had been giving illegal hand signals from the box. Williams was upset and confronted the umpire. He gives me a thumbs up, he's telling me to come on. We don't have any code, and I know you don't know that, and I understand why you may have thought that was coaching, but I'm telling you it's not. I don't cheat to win, I'd rather lose. Which is really a great attitude. I just wish that was her coach's attitude, too. Because after the match, her coach admitted he had been giving her illegal hand signals, but defended it by saying she didn't even see them, and everybody does it. Well, if everybody cheats. According to the Grand Slam rulebook, both the coach and the player have to be communicating for it to be coaching. So did she really not see her coach? I don't know. Whatever. She got a penalty. Then she got another one for breaking her racket by slamming it on the ground. Ok, she's upset. Serena Williams was going for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title. She'd already lost one set, was close to losing another one, and had a penalty against her she felt was unfair. But she couldn't let it go. She kept arguing. And that's when the umpire gave her a game penalty, awarding a game to Osaka. That put the score 5-3, Williams down. According to the Grand Slam rulebook, verbal abuse is defined as a statement about an official, opponent, sponsor, spectator, or other person that implies dishonesty, or is derogatory, insulting, or otherwise abusive. But Williams had a different explanation for the game penalty. Sexism. That was a theme she doubled down on after the match. The match she ultimately ended up losing 6-4. I've seen other men call other umpires several things. And I'm here fighting for women's rights and for women's equality, and for all kinds of stuff. And for me to say thief, and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. I mean, he's never taken a game from a man because they said thief. Though she did also get in some praise for Osaka. She played an amazing match, and she deserved the credit, and she deserved to win. And at the end of the day, that's what it was. Serena Williams was fined $17,000 for her code violations. Don't feel too bad, though. It was taken out of her $1.85 million runner-up prize. This is not the first time Williams has gotten in an argument with umpires. Here she is in 2009, after an altercation with the female umpire during another match she was losing. Now to be fair, she didn't say she was going to kill her. What she actually said was, In another outburst during a 2011 game, Williams told the female umpire, if you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way. You're a hater and unattractive inside. Hmm. It seems that like many great athletes, Serena Williams has a temper. But the accusations of sexism have divided the tennis world like... well, a tennis net. The International Tennis Federation is backing the umpire. But the Women's Tennis Association and the US Tennis Association, which runs the US Open, have backed Serena. Some, like this New York Times freelance journalist, said the whole thing was fair. But some other male tennis players admitted they'd said worse things to umpires and were not penalized. So was there sexism in this particular case with Serena Williams? It's impossible to say. At this year's US Open, Serena Williams was the only player to be penalized for verbal abuse. But she wasn't the only player to be penalized overall. 35 other players, 9 other women, and 26 men, were penalized for a variety of other types of violations. So maybe Serena Williams is not so much a victim of sexism, but a victim of not controlling her temper. Of course, there are sexist people in the world, including quite possibly some tennis umpires. How about Carlos Ramos, the umpire who penalized Serena Williams? Well, there are cases where male players with bad tempers have argued with him, and he didn't penalize them. Players like Novak Djokovic. And Nick Kyrgios. And Rafael Nadal. But those cases are slightly different because those players' outbursts were short, whereas Serena Williams kept arguing with him. And even then, Ramos only penalized her after she accused him of being a liar and a thief. Ramos has gained a reputation for being an extreme stickler for the rules, which has angered more than one player. So what's the right call? Women absolutely have been discriminated against in sports. The organizers of the Boston Marathon tried to stop the first woman who ran it. Literally. But if Serena Williams hadn't broken the rules, there'd be no penalties. And the rules themselves aren't bad or sexist rules. And you can't go around accusing anyone who does something you don't like of being sexist. Well, you can, but that's not a winning attitude. This was not a clear case of sexism, but it is a clear case of her own unprofessional behavior. But if we want to talk about the real tragedy to this story, it's what happened to her opponent, Naomi Osaka. The 20-year-old who, by the way, is the first player for Japan, man or woman, to ever win a Grand Slam title, idolized Serena Williams. It was always my dream to play Serena in the US Open finals. So I'm really glad that I was able to do that. And I'm really grateful I was able to play with you. Thank you. And yet when that dream came true, it was ruined by the jeers and boos of the crowd who were upset at the umpire. Serena tried to help by comforting Osaka and telling the crowd to stop booing. Just want to tell you guys, she played well, and this is her first Grand Slam. Congratulations, Naomi! But that was not how Osaka's dream should have turned out. She even felt she had to apologize for her victory. Everyone was cheering for her. I'm sorry it had to end like this. At least she knows how to be a gracious winner. So what do you think? Leave your comments below. And if you want to help make America Uncovered, support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash America Uncovered. Don't let YouTube demonetization throw the covers over America. Once again, I'm your host Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching America Uncovered.