Sports

Student voice: Serena’s blow at the US Open

Different perspectives. Although Serena’s actions were claimed unruly, many people believe that Serena has done no wrong. Serena has been playing tennis since she was 3 years old. Freshman Niha Ramesh sided with the tennis player, stating that Williams’ coach was at fault rather than Serena.

Minakshi Shivananda, News Editor
September 13, 2018

On Saturday, September 8th at the US Open, Serena Williams was penalized for being coached, verbally abusing the umpire, and slamming her racket on the ground. The match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in the US Open was reffed by Carlos Ramos. Many people believe that the code violations were called due to sexism against Serena Williams. Others argue that the chair umpire was correct in calling out the code violation and was well deserved for Williams’s actions. In response, South Forsyth students voiced their opinions as to how the final match played out and how it affected women’s tennis.

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“No matter how mad you are at an umpire or a referee, you can’t show it.”

“It’s not something you do and it’s against the rules. You just have to contain your anger, and that’s a difficult part that athletes find in sports. It changes my opinion about her [Serena Williams] because of the fact that she lied about being coached, when her coach admitted to coaching her during the game. Since Osaka was leading in the game clearly, being 16 years younger than Williams, Williams’ could’ve been jealous. Yes, feeling behind an underdog, you can feel extremely angry and frustrated, and then you could take it out on the umpire. The fine was necessary for what happened. I don’t think that any sexism was involved, as Williams’ claimed.”

— Freshman volleyball player Jossie Somerson

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“The actions weren’t necessary, but it gets to point where you have to do something about it.”

“But they definitely weren’t necessary at the moment. No, it wasn’t an ethical thing to do at such a prestigious event. I still think of Serena the same, it wasn’t her fault, it’s the coach’s fault because he’s not supposed to be talking or giving her signals during the game. I don’t think that Serena’s actions would’ve been caused by jealousy of Osaka or the age difference between the two. The fine wasn’t necessary because she had the right intention, she just went about it the wrong way. I definitely don’t think that the umpire wasn’t being sexist, Williams was probably stressed about everything that was going on.”

— Freshman volleyball player Niha Ramesh

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“Her reputation of being the best tennis player was on the line.”

“I don’t think that Serena’s actions were necessary, but she did have a reason for doing it. Many tennis players have done the same as Serena, so it wasn’t very shocking to me. I actually didn’t know that Serena’s coach admitted to coaching her, but I assume that many people get a little bit of coaching from their coach during a match. I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad thing, but at a type of event in the finals, you shouldn’t be doing it. Because her reputation of being the best tennis player was on the line, she thought that she should be able to have another win, so she could have 1 more win over Steffi Graf, but it was also on the line of the first Japanese woman to win the US Open, so there were a lot of stakes at risk. I think that she [Serena Williams] probably to an extent that she was better than her [Naomi Osaka]. During the entire US Open, Osaka had the strongest mental game out of everyone. Serena’s mental game was halfway there because she had a lot of ups and downs, but Osaka’s performance was constantly very good. So it wasn’t a surprise that she won. I think that the fine was necessary. I mean the coach admitted to coaching, so it was definitely necessary. She still gets a lot of money, so taking 17 grand from her is fine. I don’t think it was an act of sexism because he could’ve done the same thing to Osaka but he didn’t.”

— 11th grade Tennis player Maddalen Demars

About the Writers

Minakshi Shivananda, News Editor

Minakshi Shivananda is a sophomore at South Forsyth High School and is taking on her 2nd year at The Bird Feed. She is the News editor this year on The Bird Feed and can’t wait to start working with the new staff. At South, she is an active member of HOSA and has been playing the piano for 9 years, outside of school. She aspires to live in Chicago and loves to travel. She is looking forward to another great year on the staff! You can contact her at [email protected] or through her Twitter, @MinakshiShivan2.