Whatever you think of Serena and Naomi (and I adore Naomi), there is no doubt in my mind that the chair acted improperly.
I think there was gender bias at work. The first coaching violation? Deserved. The second violation? Deserved.
But I cannot begin to count the number of times men have sat in their chairs on changeovers and had heated discussions with umpires, and nothing whatever happens. But when it is Serena, it is a game penalty in the final. Insane. Her words were actually civil -- saying she deserved an apology, no profanity, no threats.
Need more proof?
In this same tournament, we had a chair umpire come out of his chair to basically coach Kirios in front of God and everyone. The proper response would have been to enforce the code of conduct, but no. Ump goes easy on the man, and USTA backs up the umpire.
By that standard, Ramos should have come out of his chair and talked to Serena, calm her nerves, tell her he wants to help her. Nope -- game penalty (when the tirade was over and he could have let it go) to put Serena's opponent a game away from the championship.
Congratulations to Naomi, but what happened today was rooted in disparate treatment and sexism.
I think you are right in spirit but wrong in this particular case.
Yes, there are separate standards for men and women, and it is unfair. It is everywhere, and it may or may not ever get better.
Women's suffrage in the US finally took place in 1920. So women were not considered good enough to vote until 98 years ago. To this moment my wife is paid less than men doing her same job, and she does it better. She takes a load of crap that makes my head explode just because she doesn't have a deep voice and a penis.
So IN THEORY I am 100% behind your points. Women should not be given excessive penalties for being the same obnoxious, unreasonable, foul-mouthed combatants that many men are. Maybe a man would have gotten away with what I think was baiting the umpire.
That's not the point.
The point is that one woman selfishly ruined what should have been the greatest day in the life of another. Because of Serena's excessive for concern for herself, and only for herself, she ruined the final. At age 36 and almost 37 shed did not have the maturity to handle herself. It was all about her.
Ramos could of and should have handled the whole thing better. If he had seen coaching, he could have called her on it much earlier. If he saw one and only one hand signal, when we all know it goes on constantly, he didn't have throw the book at her at that moment. But that is also an issue of the stars getting too big for the rules, the same thing that has gone on with Nadal re time until finally a shot clock has made him at least obey the same rules as everyone else.
Violations or fines for racket abuse are incredibly unevenly applied. And any "rule" about arguing is also unevenly applied. The top men often get away with murder.
These things are all wrong, or they are all problems. A huge part of what went wrong has to do with unequal and unfair application of rules that are so fuzzy that no one knows quite what they are.
But the elephant in the room is that Serena behaved more like a spoiled 5 year-old than an adult, and through her utter lack of maturity a final was ruined.
That's on her.
