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US Open umpire did the right thing, Serena Williams just had a temper tantrum
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Why you can trust SCMP
I take exception to the comments made by your reader Paul Chiu, regarding the US Open women’s tennis final on September 8 (“Umpire who upset Serena Williams committed a double fault”, September 12).
Mr Chiu put the blame for the debacle on the umpire, Carlos Ramos. Mr Ramos is one of the most experienced umpires on the tour and has many championship matches under his belt. He knows the rules and when he saw blatant, not “imperceptible”, as Mr Chiu writes, hand signals from Ms Williams’ coach, he was within his rights to give her a formal warning.
Many umpires may have let this slide but something about the situation made Mr Ramos do what he did. Ms Williams should have accepted his ruling but, rather than focus on getting back into the match (which she was losing), she let it stew to the point that when she lost the next game she smashed her racquet onto the court – an automatic violation.
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Mr Ramos then had no choice but to award her opponent a point for Ms Williams’ unsportsmanlike conduct. After dropping the next game, Ms Williams completely lost her composure and threw a temper tantrum like a four-year-old.
Watch: Serena Williams loses her cool
Serena Williams fined US$17,000 for US Open final outbursts at umpire amid sexism row
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