Serena Williams Is Back at Australian Open, for Tennis and So Much More

After the US Open debacle I watched several old clips of Jimmy aconnors and McEnroe shouting at umps and demeaning them. Yet they got a pass most of the time, both are held in high esteem to this day. Very sexist and racist to criticize Serena more than they were. About the outfit, that was completely sexist and possibly racist as well, for the French to ban it, particularly as Rafa wears muscle shirts and gets away with that.

Serena is doing Serena , if she’s saying she’s having fun playing tennis ? She means only a little part of it, the most part is a work . This is what she does for living . At 37 and still chasing those balls? It’s a job. So every body out there has choice, take or leave her. Serena at work , and I think she’s pretty good at it, everywhere she plays it’s a sold out venue ! Go Serena !

I’ve always greatly admired her, but that outburst at the US Open showed clearly who Serena really is. I didn’t like it.

re that controversy: How many people know she took home $1.85 million for losing to Naomi Osaka. Whatever was going on, being black and a woman didn't work this time, since her opponent was also black and a woman. Athletes who make more than most people do in a lifetime should behave. Period. Full stop.

The last sentence is telling... her RACKET may offer her most meaningful reply. Well she sure is prone to making a racket, her repeated tantrums at times when opponents are besting her is annoying, boorish and quite frankly cheating... and that is a fact. All the biased ranting here is smoke and mirrors, she is a good player, maybe the best ever, but her rep will be tainted by her this for ever.

I love tennis and am a fan of Ms Williams. Anyone who makes the ridiculous comparison between her and McEnroe are clearly seeing the world through their blinders and I won't waste my time attempting to pull them off. I hope, like the author said so well, that she does her talking with her racquet on the court and continues to speak so eloquently with her voice off the court.

When the story of this great life is told no one will believe the heights to which Serena rose and the level of hate she unjustifiably endured. I've been watching her now for over 25 years. Her composure, grace and, of course, success have no rivals in sports especially against the backdrop of her challenges. Most successful athletes rely on home crowds to buoy them. Serena has never had a "home crowd." I've attended tennis tournaments even in Serena's American backyards (Florida and California) where the crowds rooted for her foreign-born opponents against her over and over again--just because. Even Navratilova--a sometimes Serena hater, who wasn't favored by US crowds when she played Evert--was shocked by the level of hostility shown Serena at the US Open a decade ago. And Serena's challenges haven't just come from crowds.The USTA embraced & accommodated in scheduling less talented Russians over her. Australian Open slowed its surface to impede her. Coaching rules changed to help rivals. Serena never mumbled agst. Kept winning. Other champs of her era-darlings of the sport-have long ago became blights on the sport. Hingis and Sharapova tested positive as dopers. Capriati spent multiple bouts in rehab. To mention Serena in a discussion of U.S. players who challenged officials is a joke. Shotspot ruined Roddick's career. After it was instituted, he could no longer gain the advantage in calls with his intimidation of the "refs." Long live, Serena—a goddess supreme.

How sad that Serena Williams, once a model for aspiring young women tennis players of all races, has joined Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe on the list of those who have publicly disrespected the game of tennis and other players by their on- and off-court misbehavior and antics. If Serena cannot win and lose gracefully and with good sportsmanship, perhaps it is time for her to retire.

There are countless examples of superstar athletes through the years whose personalities I did not find likable and whose values I didn't share. For me, Serena Williams falls into thls category.

Serena Williams outburst at the US Open last year was the nadir of professionalism. All one has to do is look at the face of Ms. Osaka to understand the depth to which Ms. Williams sank. That fact that Ms. Williams continues to make excuses, play the race and genders cards (against another minority), and blame others shows a complete lack of culpability and integrity. She should stop making excuses and asking for special treatment, she should apologize profusely to her fellow players and tennis fans around the world.

The mistake Carlos Ramos made was being an umpire for a women's tennis match. He put himself in a bad position. Women's tennis only exists for the sake of women. Men don't care about it. And they shouldn't pretend to, which is why Carlos Ramos shouldn't have umpired that match. Because now all the feminists want to attack him.

I viewed Williams' anger at the umpire and her outburst lowered my estimation of her as a player and as a person. Furthermore, I also was disgusted by episodes of self-indulgent histrionics by McEnrole and Jimmy Connors when I saw them.

when she's winning, she behaves. when she's losing it's always someone else's fault followed by excuses and a tantrum.

Let's hope she reads Martina Navatrilova comment in the NYT a few times before getting into another fight about feminism.

What superstars of the sports world tend to forget amidst all of their publicity, wealth and finery is they serve at the pleasure of their audience. They're no more than a diversion, an amusement if you will, from our daily grinds. They don't enrich or make their audiences better people, they're the adult version of cartoons. The sport elites have their coaches, managers and PR people who's main concern is keeping them on top of their game, advancing their brand and their marketability. Keep the public talking about you, have them wanting more of you and make sure that the face of that Audemars Piguet faces the camera. I'm sorry that I find it difficult to feel compassion for a woman who's won way beyond her fair share of championship titles and banked $180 million along the way. Thanks to us Ms. Williams is completely removed from the daily grind that so many women have to go through and deal with. Ms. Williams does what she wants, seldom is told no or denied any request. She's not a good poster child for the women's cause. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on the other hand, is qualified speaking from real world experience.

If Serena were white, it's likely most would grant her a pass on her McEnroe-like actions. (I thought that umpire unreasonably took away any chance of her winning.) It's enormously challenging for a person of color, especially a woman, to "thread the needle" of self-assertion demanded by American racism. Respect!

Let's hope if she gets her butt kicked again she doesn't try to blame it on the ref, or racism or sexism or whatever the heck excuse she made at the US Open. That was cruel and spiteful.

Four months on and Serena is still blaming everyone else for her bullying behaviour. The coach, the umpire, the male players who get away with worse. Try this one: If Osaka hadn't outplayed her that day I'm sure it wouldn't have happened.

There is no doubt about Ms Williams’ greatness. What was disappointing this last U..S. open was the level of deceptiveness: denying her coach’s hand signals, using sexism to bolster her claim (she was grasping for straws there), berating and insulting the umpire in front of millions, and continuing this tirade to throw off her impressionable opponent. It was particularly troubling that she doubled down on all of these infractions in her attempt to bring her fans along with her. It didn’t work. It only damaged her reputation and her brand. It took a 20-yr old - Naomi Osaka - to show Ms Williams the grace of a champion.

I have read the other comments and have a question: Have any of you ever made a grave error in your professional life? Has it happened while under intense scrutiny and physical exertion or in the privacy of your office? Did your blunder come to define your past achievements and future performance? Should it? I recognize that Ms. Williams operates under a microscope, in part of her own making. This young woman has used the “megaphone” her remarkable skill and discipline have provided. Naturally, her lapses are magnified and dissected. But to tsk-tsk at one of the greatest athletes of all time because of one particularly unfortunate episode is dismissive and tinged with a patina of attitudes other than concern for good sportsmanship. Yes, she behaved badly. She has acknowledged it. Move on. By the way, I am a sixty four year old Jewish woman (retired attorney) with an incurable, degenerative neurological disorder. I am in better health now than I was ten years ago, primarily as a result of strength and cardiovascular training. When it gets too tough I tell myself, “Serena Williams would do one more set. She’d do five more minutes. You can, too.” Doesn’t make it any easier, but oh, what a role model!

Every article, every comment, every story about the 2018 US Open is about Serena. But Naomi Osaka is the US Open Champion. And Serena stole her moment of glory, and Osaka's tears were those of shame. We forget who was hurt the most by that championship match. Osaka is a footnote to Serena's behavior and history. That is the real shame of that event. By her actions, Serena let the victory of a hard working and deserving young woman slip into the shadows.

More power to Serena. A bright outspoken women who will not play a traditional submissive role. She is a star on and off the court. And will do well in Australia.

My former mother-in-law had formidable combat skills. She was willing to use these weapons to her advantage, when we, her family, least expected it – in public settings. Our collective embrace of propriety left us wide open for attack. It was a powerful strategy. It was also deeply embarrassing and ugly to witness. Serena reminded me of my mother-in-law at last year's U.S. Open. She took her argument public and created a grotesque scene that went far beyond what was appropriate, in my view. That's what bullies do. Naomi Osaka's performance deserved respect and so did the sport.

Serena is the GOAT. And she is human. Could she have handled the US Open in a more demure manner? Did Ramos apply standards not normally applied in penalizing her? It can be argued his actions were within the strict interpretation of the rules. However, her coach was not doing anything unusual, so why pick on her? Stop trying to put Serena in a box and enjoy what she has accomplished for this sport.

I don't care what the color of your skin is or if you're male, female. transgender, binary or lucid and pregnancy is no excuse on the courts for horrific behavior. Serena Williams has made herself difficult to watch. Speaking of tennis, there are more closeted, gay, professional, male players than you could swing a racquet at if you really want to open a much needed conversation.

Wah! I am a 'professional' that wants favorable treatment and if I don't get it I cry that it's not fair :(

Congratulations to Serena for being the first woman tennis pro in history to have a child! That's how some of these articles seem to read. And her behavior at the U.S. Open was disgraceful and detracted from a dominant performance by Osaka who was winning the match anyway.

Oh boy. I wonder if she'll throw a temper tantrum, wrongly conflate and exploit a timely social issue to make herself look like some sort of martyr/pioneer, and then steal the spotlight from a rising star player to make it all about herself, even in defeat. It's a shame that one of the all-time great players has been so consistently classless throughout her storied career...

Those who can, play. Those who can't, interrupt the game, call the judge names, break their rackets, etc. Shame on Serena for blaming the judge for her poor performance and for detracting from Naomi Osaka's outstanding victory. Serena's performance at the US Open demonstrated her physical and mental weaknesses. She has still not lost all the weight she put on during pregnancy, nor has she regained the elite-level physical conditioning she had prior to pregnancy. She of course devotes time to being a mother, but her wealth (and her husband's) permit them to have nannies, cooks, assistants and other servants who allow her to spend so much time training and competing. However, regaining and maintaining top physical condition at the advanced age of 36 poses an increasingly difficult challenge for her. Serena also showed a lack of emotional control, breaking a racket and calling an umpire a liar and thief. She has previously exhibited--and been penalized for--emotional outbursts. Such behavior may occur when the player simply "loses it" or when deliberately trying to psych out an opponent, but in no case is justifiable. This childish behavior is called acting out and being a bad sport. Denying she was coached from the stands was insulting to her fans and to the game, especially since the coach admitted the violation! Serena Williams was not defeated by an umpire; she was defeated by herself and by a younger, better-conditioned, better-behaved and better-playing opponent.

Hopefully she will encounter neutral umpires.

Does anyone else out there find Serena's late age dominance a bit... odd? She's playing better now in late 30s than she she in her 20s.

This is the perfect example of an old by apt saying: "The wish is father to the thought". I have seen no interview of late in which Ms. Williams has held herself out as a paragon of identity politics or the oh so chic obsessions within movement/hard left politics. Could it be that she is much more concerned with her recent motherhood, her health, fitness and game? Total projection here by agenda pushers. Will a player who bests Ms. Williams on the court now be accused of being guilty of reactionary politics/white privilege/complicit with the misogynist corporate world? This dear readers is where the cancer of identity politics, instead of coalition building for justice across class and race leads us.

Serena had every right to get upset with Carlos Ramos' behavior towards her. She is unforgiven by many people for being human. She was nervous, shocked and yes, she was robbed. I love Osaka, but she would not have won had Serena been at her best. I hope she does not play the US Open this year. She has suffered too much indignities of sexism, racism and outright theft from the officiating.

Expecting Slam 24, then 25. Serena’s greatness cannot be denied (at least not honestly), despite her detractors—and a few displays of “bad”—albeit understandable—judgment along the way of a 20-plus year career. Go Serena, go!

For the social critic cited in the article to draw a comparison between a Supreme Court nominee accused of sexual assault and Serena is ridiculous and inappropriate.

Let's just hand her the trophy right now and avoid the next temper tantrum. That'll make everyone happy.

No more proof of how biased has been the court the Williams Sisters have had to play on is the failure of tennis-world at-large to grant Serena the transcendent dispensation! The Mozart dispensation! The Babe Ruth Dispensation! The Miles Davis dispensation! The Open’s chair umpire underscored this phenomenon by holding her to the same standard he would a junior tennis newbie! Never mind that Serena was a major paver of the road from Margaret Court’s Wimbelton to Billy Jean’s Tennis Center with sufficient gold to have the salary of chair umpires quadruple (even allowing for the time-value of money) in the process! As to robbing Naomi Osaka of her moment, the assertion robs Serena of another dispensation! The but-for dispensation! For how reasonable is it to posit that but for Serena theprodigious promise of this young prodigy would be far less prodigious and far less promising, if it existed at all!

For Serena all the way. This is a sport where the fans shouted racial slurs to her while she was a child. That she was able to endure this incredibly racially hostile environment and succeed is a testament to her character. Minorites and women are always under a microscope. No man has ever gotten upset? Name the male players you've disowned. There is so much policing of women. Serena, we (non-white people of America) are with you all the way.

Most people do not want race/gender politics mixed in with their tennis. If you have a big personality that comes out on the court, then that can be very entertaining. But what you do off the court, e.g., whether or not you have children, is neither interesting or relevant to any discussion of tennis.

Not a raving maniac, a calculatedly professional player who knows how to use her anger when she needs it. She makes me tired. Oh for the days of a gentleman like Rod Laver, out there on the courts.

Serena Williams is fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Serena Williams is strong. Strong. Strong. Strong. Serena Williams is beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Serena Williams is a human verb. Human verb. Human verb. Human verb. Serena Williams is...and thanks to the Universe for her. End of discussion.

John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors were at the top of the game in their times You have to respect their tennis success. They both often behaved boorishly on court. I think less of them for that. The same applies to Serena Williams. I could hardly believe the intensity of her famous meltdown at last year's US Open. Her behavior is in sharp contrast to her sister Venus, who wins or loses graciously. I happen not to like Serena's cat suit, but if she does, and many of the fans do, then go ahead. My favorite complaint about apparel, and this applies to men as well, is that often both players appear in the same, or so similar, apparel that it is difficult to identify each player when watching a full court image on TV.

When the Williams sisters emerged onto the scene, I was a huge fan. At first, Venus was the better player and I really pulled for Serena to catch up. Catch up she did. And I cheered her all the way. I lost enthusiasm for Serena over the last five years. Wearing the mantle of a tennis superstar, male or female, I think it's incumbent on the player to understand their main role as an ambassador for the sport. The crux of this story continues to be a defense of Serena's actions at the US Open 2018 final. Those actions have been given a lot of credence as a powerful social statement. I think anyone who really knows tennis knows the truth about these actions. They were simply another part of Serena's game. If you're losing, create a controversy to get your opponent off balance to try to get an edge. That's it. I really want Serena to, in her remaining days in tennis, to become a true ambassador for the sport. To teach, through actions, all the possible newcomers to the sport, young and old, that this is a sport about concentration, being in the moment, trusting yourself to overcome obstacles and most of all a love of the game. Then I'll go full circle, back to loving Serena again.

Great champions are passionate competitors. Flashes of temper and anger are expected. The manner in which Ms. Williams lost her composure at the US Open was unusual and unfortunate. Reasonable people can argue about whether the umpire should have issued a warning about the coaching before calling an infraction. Williams' reaction was all out of proportion to the call. She became defensive and enraged. She broke her racket. She continued to berate the umpire beyond what was acceptable conduct on the court. Osaka was reduced to tears as the crowd booed her victory. Williams belatedly showed the grace and class that marks her typical conduct, encouraging proper support for the US Open champion. I hope Ms. Williams has learned from her mistakes, and wish her well at the Australian Open.

"She did tell GQ Magazine in November that Ramos, the umpire at the U.S. Open, should have defused the contretemps by telling her about the signals from her coach before punishing her. It would have let her set things straight without the penalty, she said." But that's exactly what Ramos did. The code violation he imposed for coaching was just a warning, without any penalty. But she insisted that there was no coaching (even though her coach later said that he was doing just that) and later committed two more code violation. Under the progressive penalty system in the rules of tennis those required first a point and then a game penalty.

Tennis is an individual competitive game and discussion of race and gender do not belong to the game. In US Open final last year she lost to Naomi Osaka, gender of both was same and Osaka is mixed race as everyone knows. Why this article talks about these non-issues when discussing a player who lost. Serena's behavior while losing was shameful for her grand record of wins in the past, she can try and win again without tantrums in case she is losing to any opponent at any time. Respect the Umpire and his decisions, post-results discussion makes no sense, even in the title of this article.