Serena has an attitude problem and she doesn't want to face it. She won't because she thinks she's a rock star, a diva, so rich and so famous that she can say, wear, do anything she pleases whenever and however she pleases. She justifies the escalation of her drama queen antics by playing the racism card (thankfully Osaka is non-white), the sexism card, the persecution card, the "I didn't know" card (really? After decades in the business??), anything rather than take personal responsibility for the way she behaves, the way she pushes the envelope, for acting entitled, using various intimidation techniques and expecting to get away with them.
Somebody has to put her back in her place for the good of the sport in general and set firm limits. Somebody has to let her know that she may be a billionaire and a superstar but in the context of tennis, she is just an athlete, a competing athlete that needs to obey rules, follow the guidelines and treat umps, linespeople, with a modicum of respect, leave the superhero ego in the locker room because this is not what the sport of tennis is about. The ump stood his ground and that's what Serena needs because her hubris is so oversized at this point. It's: me, me, me me and no the ump is not the boss, I am. Well , Serena, sometimes tough love is the best thing there is so, no, you are not the boss and you did get coached and you knew the rule about racquet abuse and after 2 code violations, you knew the 3rd one was game penalty. So when you started bullying the ump verbally and physically (finger wagging and other shenanigans vaguely reminiscent of the Clijsters line judge incident), you knew what was coming next.
And I know I should not mix politics into all this but at a time in the history of the US when the sitting president embodies the legitimization of bullying and intimidation over common sense, we need American athletes to reflect different values, even opposite values, more than ever before.
I almost forgot: Osaka played the perfect match. She didn't even lose focus after the long interruption and all the drama and that's the only thing we should be talking about tonight of course.