THE U.S. OPEN–SOME THOUGHTS

The referee did the greatest disservice to Naomi Osaka in the way he handled the officiating of the finals. He denied her forever the right to say that she fairly won a grand slam.

I have been watching tennis for years. I have rarely seen such bad officiating. Venus and Serena have been the recipients of bad officiating that has cost them slams. Who can forget how Wimbledom used to treat Venus. She was denied several slams there because of officiating. Venus used to complain. It did not do her any good. She stopped complaining and started letting her racket do the talking. She won seven slams. Serena has won 23. Who knows how many more she would have won but for the bad officiating against her and Venus. Venus will never complain. Serena will speak up for herself. This is what I like about her.

I am a Venus, Serena and Chris Evert fan. I cannot tell you how many times I watched the top players come out and blow Chris Evert off the court in the first set only to lose the match. Chris would wait until the other player cooled down and beat them. Serena plays best when she is mad. She gets energy and strength and finds a way to beat you when she gets angry at herself. I do not know why she could not calm down during the final. I do not believe she thought that he would take the match by taking away a game. I remember when Martina Hingis was number one and bragging about being better that either Williams sister. She had Venus down by one set and was 4-0 in the second set. I turned my television off and went to the store. I came back home and the match was still being played. Venus won the match. Serena, Venus and Chris Evert played with the heart of champions. They would find a way to beat you. They compete. The match in the second set was even when the referee took the game away for alleged verbal abuse. Naomi will never know if she could have won the match fairly and beaten Serena. It was taken away from Serena. This is my greatest regret about the match. It took away Naomi Osaka’s greatest victory  to date or tainted it. Have we forgotten the Davenport and Venus match at Wimbledon? How many times did we think Davenport had won?  Venus ended up winning the match when we thought she was down and out. Chris, Venus and Serena complete with the heart of champions. The game is not over until the last ball is struck if being officiated fairly. The referee was wrong. When I saw his conduct, the first thing I thought was that the game was fixed. His officiating did not appear normal despite his following the rules. Something was off about this guy. This was not normal for a grand slam final.

Chris and Venus have the same demeanor on the court. Serena is different. She sometimes has to get herself riled up to win. Trying to take the fire and spunk from women and taking away games because they get emotional at times is wrong. It is sexist. There was clearly some misunderstanding on the part of Serena. I have never seen a referee take away a game from a man for worse conduct. There is a double standard being applied here. I am with team Billy Jean King. Martina used to be known for erupting, crying and screaming at referees. She was never penalized a game for worse behavior than Serena or just as bad behavior. She is really one to talk now. How quickly she has forgotten herself. Remember Nastasse, Johnny Mac, Conners and others. I never saw them lose a game in a slam for their behavior. We need to eliminate the double standard between the officiating in the men and women’s game. Let the officials unionize. Perhaps this will provide that the same standard will be applied to the men and women’s game. This referee should never officiate at another Serena Williams match. His bias will proceed him. He was wrong to officiate in this manner in a final of the United States Open, I do not care who would have been playing! He was wrong!