Tennis great Margaret Court, 80, ripped newly retired tennis champ <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/serena-williams">Serena Williams</a> for failing to reciprocate admiration.
Court, an open <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity">Christian</a> largely shunned by the tennis world, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2022/09/04/margaret-court-exclusive-interview-admire-serena-williams/">criticized</a> Williams during a rare interview with Britain&#8217;s Daily Telegraph.
&#8220;Serena, I&#8217;ve admired her as a player,&#8221; Court asserted. &#8220;But I don&#8217;t think she has ever admired me.&#8221;
Taking another shot at Williams, Court said she &#8220;thought it was bad that Williams didn’t mention her opponent more when she spoke. We were taught to honour our opponent. We respected one another.”
Williams <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nothing-is-a-sacrifice-for-me-serena-williams-announces-her-retirement-from-tennis-explains-why">closed her career</a> on Friday at the US Open, taking a loss to Australian Ajla Tomljanović. 
The 80-year-old pastor has the most grand slam titles ever, racking up one more than Williams, who&#8217;s been dubbed the &#8220;greatest of all time,&#8221; or the &#8220;G.O.A.T.&#8221;
Court emphasized that she had a shorter career than Williams, and won grand slams after having kids.
&#8220;Serena has played seven years more than I did,&#8221; the former athlete told the Telegraph. &#8220;I finished in my early 30s. People forget that I took two years out. I first retired &#8230; when I was 25, thinking I would never return to tennis.&#8221;
“I got married, had a baby, but then had one of my best years, winning 24 out of 25 tournaments. I came back after two babies,&#8221; Court said. &#8220;After having the first baby, I won three out of the four slams. And Serena hasn’t won a slam since [she had a baby].&#8221;
The athlete also <a href="https://www.eurosport.com/tennis/us-open/2022/margaret-court-scolds-serena-williams-for-lack-of-admiration-and-claims-current-tennis-era-is-so-muc_sto9126193/story.shtml">dismissed</a> criticism that her era was less competitive than it is now.
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“I would love to have played in this era. I think it’s so much easier. How I would love to have taken family or friends along with me. But I couldn’t. I had to go on my own or with the national team. People don’t see all that,&#8221; Court said. &#8220;We didn’t have psychologists or coaches with us. It’s a whole different world. That’s what disappoints me, that players today don’t honour the past of the game.”
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“I often hear Billie Jean (King) saying that people didn’t come down to Australia in my early years,” she continued. “But Maria Bueno, the world No 1, came down. So did Christine Truman, Ann Haydon, Darlene Hard. Plus, Australia had some wonderful players. We had five girls in the top 10. Lesley Bowrey won two French Opens.&#8221;
Court has received backlash from some in the tennis community because she has spoken openly against same-sex marriage and transgender issues being pushed on children.
“I was at Wimbledon this year and nobody even spoke to me. So I thought, ‘Ah, that’s interesting,’&#8221; Court recalled.
“It’s very sad, because a lot of the press and television today, particularly in tennis, don’t want to mention my name,&#8221; she explained. “It’s only when they have to, because I still hold so many records. In 2020, I was meant to be coming to Wimbledon for the 50th anniversary of my Calendar Grand Slam. But then Covid hit, so the honour never happened.&#8221;
“The French Open didn’t invite me, the US Open didn’t invite me,&#8221; the athlete said. &#8220;Rod Laver had won the slam and I was going to be honoured in the same way, but no. I didn’t lose any sleep over it. But the honour has not been there for what I did do. In my own nation, I have been given titles, but they would still rather not mention me.”
In 2011, Court came out against gay marriage.
“To dismantle this sole definition of marriage and try to legitimise what God calls abominable sexual practices that include sodomy, reveals our ignorance as to the ills that come when society is forced to accept law that violates their very own God-given nature of what is right and what is wrong,” the athlete <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/tennis/margaret-courts-controversial-comments-a-tennis-legend-now-condemned-by-many-c-2007222">said</a> at the time.
“The fact that the homosexual cry is, ‘We can’t help it as we were born this way’, as the cause behind their own personal choice is cause for concern,&#8221; she added. “Every action begins with a thought. There is a choice to be made.”

2022 US Open – Day 5

‘I Came Back After Two Babies’: Christian Tennis Great With Most Grand Slam Titles Ever Rips Serena Williams

Christian Tennis Great Margaret Court Blasts Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Sports

Tennis

Superstar Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis and said that &#8220;nothing is a sacrifice for her,&#8221; as she explained that she&#8217;s choosing building her family rather than her tennis résumé.
In a lengthy article written by the 40-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/serena-williams">tennis superstar</a> for <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/serena-williams-retirement-in-her-own-words">Vogue</a>, Serena talked about how much she will miss the part of her that played tennis, but that she&#8217;s come to a moment in her life when she wants to grow her family and doesn&#8217;t want to be &#8220;pregnant again as an athlete.”
Williams and husband Alexis Ohanian share a daughter, Alexis Olympia, who turns five this month.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In Vogue’s September issue, <a href="https://twitter.com/serenawilliams?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@serenawilliams</a> prepares to say farewell to tennis on her own terms and in her own words. “It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine,” she says. “I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next” <a href="https://t.co/6Zr0UXVTH1">https://t.co/6Zr0UXVTH1</a> <a href="https://t.co/YtGtcc18a9">pic.twitter.com/YtGtcc18a9</a>
&mdash; Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) <a href="https://twitter.com/voguemagazine/status/1556984065319903232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,&#8221; the tennis star wrote. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn&#8217;t be writing this because I&#8217;d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe I&#8217;d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Don&#8217;t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia. I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital—although things got super complicated on the other side.&#8221;
&#8220;And I almost did do the impossible: A lot of people don&#8217;t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017,&#8221; Williams continued. &#8220;But I’m turning 41 this month, and something&#8217;s got to give. I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.&#8221;
The athlete explained that she&#8217;d rather think of this time as &#8220;a transition&#8221; and &#8220;evolution,&#8221; and wrote that she&#8217;s &#8220;evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.&#8221;
“A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that family,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/williams-told-ramos-hes-never-ump-one-her-matches-amanda-prestigiacomo">Williams</a> shared, while at the same time admitting the idea of retirement brings her a &#8220;great deal of pain&#8221; and is not something she&#8217;s looking forward to. She wrote that she&#8217;s &#8220;torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.&#8221;
And she shared that &#8220;if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter,&#8221; as she explained that when it comes to her daughter, &#8220;nothing is a sacrifice&#8221; for her. “It all just makes sense,&#8221; she said.

‘Nothing Is A Sacrifice For Me’: Serena Williams Announces Her Retirement From Tennis, Explains Why

Motherhood

Vogue Magazine

“Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion, who said actor Sam Elliott was “being a little bit of a b****” after he <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/piece-of-s-iconic-western-star-sam-elliott-rips-oscar-bound-western-the-power-of-the-dog-for-homosexual-themes/">criticized her Western film</a> for its homosexual themes, did some moaning of her own after winning the Best Director award at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night, whining at iconic tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, “You don’t play against the guys, like I have to.”
Campion was the only woman nominated in her category.
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<a href="http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1309-sam-elliott">Speaking</a> on Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast,” Elliott, who currently stars in “1883” and whose long list of classic portrayals of rugged men in Westerns includes his legendary performance as Virgil Earp in the iconic “Tombstone,” said of the Netflix movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch, “You want to talk about that piece of s***?”
The exchange went like this:
<blockquote>Maron: Did you see Power of the Dog? Did you watch that movie
Elliott: Yeah. Do you want to talk about that piece of s***?
Maron: You didn’t like that one?
Elliott: F*** no.
Maron: Okay. Why?
Elliott: I’ll tell you why. I read a f***ing — I didn’t like it anyway; I looked at it when I was down there in Texas doing 1883; and what really brought it home to me the other day when I said to you “Do you want to talk about it”— there was a f***ing full-page ad out in the LA Times and there was a review — not a review but a —
Maron: Clip.
Elliott: A clip, yeah. And it talked about the “Evisceration of the American Myth.” And I thought, “What the f***? What the f***?” This is a guy who&#8217;s done Westerns forever.
Maron: For his whole life.
Elliott: The Evisceration of the American West. What are all those dancers, those guys in New York who wear  bowties and not much else? Remember them from back in the day?
Maron: Oh, the Chippendales.
Elliott: Yeah. That’s what all these f***ing cowboys in that movie look like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f***king movie.
Maron: I think that’s what the movie’s about.
Elliott: Yeah. Well, what the f*** does this woman from —
Maron: Who, Jane Campion?
Elliott: Yeah,. She’s a brilliant director. I love her work, previous work. But what the f*** does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West? And why in the f*** does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say this is the way it was? That f***ing rubbed me the wrong way, pal. The myth is that there were these macho men out there with the cattle? I just came from Texas where I was hanging out with families — not men — but families. Big, long, extended, multiple-generation families that made their living and their lives were all about being cowboys. And, boy, when I f***ing saw that, I thought, ‘What the f***? Where are we in this world today?’”
Maron: I don’t know that that’s the biggest issue at hand.
Elliott: Well, it’s not the biggest issue, but for me it was the only issue because there was so much of it. I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his f***ing chaps. He had two pairs of chaps — a woolly pair and a leather pair. And every f***ing time he would walk in from somewhere — I don’t know where in the f*** — he never was on a horse, maybe once — he’d walk into the f***ing house, storm up the f***ing stairs, go lay in his bed in his chaps and play his banjo.  It’s like, what the f***? What the f***? Where’s the Western? Where’s the Western in this Western?</blockquote>
He continued, “I take it personal. I take it f***ing personal, pal.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-little-bit-of-a-b-director-jane-campion-slams-sam-elliott-over-his-complaints-about-her-western-film">Asked</a> at the Directors Guild Awards what she thought of Elliott, Campion sniped:
<blockquote>I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a b*****. And I’m sorry to say, he’s not a cowboy; he’s an actor. The West is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range. I think it’s a little bit sexist. &#8230; I think he thinks of me as a woman or something lesser first, and I don’t appreciate that.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Jane Campion responds to Sam Elliott&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThePowerOfTheDog?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ThePowerOfTheDog</a> comments: &quot;I&#39;m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. He&#39;s not a cowboy; he&#39;s an actor. The West is a mythic space and there&#39;s a lot of room on the range. I think it&#39;s a little bit sexist.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/I32wQ8lCiF">https://t.co/I32wQ8lCiF</a> <a href="https://t.co/Tftq4AoXCy">pic.twitter.com/Tftq4AoXCy</a>
&mdash; Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1502839949212545028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2022</a></blockquote>
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FIJI Water At The 27th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards

Director Called Sam Elliott ‘A Little Bit Of A B****.’ Then She Whined She Has It Harder Than 2 Black Tennis Stars.

Sam Elliott

During tennis star Serena Williams&#8217; embarrassing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35655/prestigiacomo-dont-praise-serena-williams-amanda-prestigiacomo">meltdown</a> last year at the U.S. Open, she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx9iT1OQMl0">vowed</a> that umpire Carlos Ramos, whom she unfairly accused of sexism, would &#8220;never&#8221; umpire one of her matches, again.
Williams, it seems, got exactly what she asked for. The U.S. Tennis Association announced over the weekend that Ramos will not umpire any of the Williams sisters&#8217; matches during the open. &#8220;This is our collective decision,&#8221; said the tennis organization&#8217;s president Stacey Allaster, according to <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/williams-ban-us-open-umpire-serena-osaka-furore-172754847--ten.html">Yahoo! Sports</a>. &#8220;We want to focus on the competition.&#8221;
As noted by the outlet, U.S. Open tournament referee Soren Friemel contended the Ramos move was &#8220;not the first time that we made decisions where it&#8217;s good for the tournament, good for the players, good for the umpires as well, to not be on those matches.&#8221;
&#8220;In the end, our goal is to assign the best chair umpire for the right match,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So in taking all those factors into consideration, the decision was made that he would not do any of the Williams sisters&#8217; matches.&#8221;
Again seemingly attempting to mask the suspect optics, Friemel argued that Ramos &#8220;has worked all the other Grand Slams. He has done Davis Cup, Fed Cup, he&#8217;s going to the Davis Cup finals. He&#8217;s considered still for all high-profile matches.&#8221;
During her final U.S. Open match against 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, Williams erupted when Ramos docked the athlete for illegally receiving coaching from the sidelines (which was later admitted to by Williams&#8217; coach Patrick Mouratoglou), smashing her racket, and committing &#8220;verbal abuse.&#8221; The tennis icon branded Ramos a &#8220;thief&#8221; and a sexist and demanded an apology. &#8220;There&#8217;s men out here who do a lot worse. But because I&#8217;m a woman, because I&#8217;m a woman, you&#8217;re gonna take this away from me? That is not right,&#8221; Williams lashed out. She also told Ramos directly, &#8220;You will never do another one of my matches.&#8221;
The pity-party continued post-match, too, when Williams positioned herself as a martyr for &#8220;women&#8217;s equality.&#8221;
&#8220;He&#8217;s (Ramos) never taken a game from a man because they said &#8216;thief.&#8217; For me it blows my mind. But I&#8217;m going to continue to fight for women,&#8221; Williams told reporters, adding, &#8220;I just feel like the fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person that has emotions, and that want to express themselves, and want to be a strong woman. They&#8217;re going to be allowed to do that because of today.&#8221;
Osaka, whose impressive win was undeniably overshadowed by Williams&#8217; antics, said she would be fine with Ramos as an umpire for her future matches. &#8220;I never really say that I don&#8217;t like an umpire, so I never change that. I&#8217;ll never be specific if I don&#8217;t want someone to umpire my match. I just go with whoever is doing it,&#8221; she said, Yahoo! Sports reported.
According to a report from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tennis-usopen/chair-umpire-ramos-has-lasting-impact-on-us-open-idUSKCN1VE05H">Reuters</a>, U.S. Tennis Association officials also said that code violations will be posted on the tournament&#8217;s scoreboards in real time, a first for the event.
WATCH:
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Williams Told Ramos He’d ‘Never’ Ump Her Matches Again. U.S. Tennis Association Makes Move In Her Favor.

Sexism

No matter how many losses she incurs, tennis icon Serena Williams has vowed to keep fighting for equality until she goes to her grave.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/serena-williams-criticism-equality-fight-wimbledon-2019">Fox News</a>, Serena Williams has not won a Grand Slam tournament since 2017, leading some to speculate whether she has focused too much of her time on causes not related to tennis.
&#8220;After her latest <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/sports/tennis/wimbledon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wimbledon</a> loss to Simona Halep, she was questioned about how much she focused on tennis,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;Williams’ bid for a record-tying 24th major win came up short Saturday when Halep defeated her, 6-2, 6-2, in under an hour at the All England Club.&#8221;
At a press conference after the defeat, a reporter asked Williams her thoughts on those who say she has focused too much on &#8220;fighting for equality&#8221; and not enough on maintaining or improving her tennis game.
&#8220;The day I stop fighting for equality and for people that look like you and me will be the day I’m in my grave,&#8221; Williams said.
The reporter&#8217;s question was spurred by comments made by noted female tennis player Billie Jean King, who told <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/27/billie-jean-king-wants-serena-williams-to-fully-commit-to-tennis-10082153/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Metro</a> last month that Serena Williams should delegate some of her social justice-oriented tasks to focus more on tennis.
&#8220;She&#8217;s got business, a baby, she&#8217;s trying to help gender equity, particularly for women of color, she&#8217;s actually on the Billie Jean King leadership initiative, she and Venus are both advisors for it,&#8221; Billie Jean King said. &#8220;[It makes winning a Slam] much harder. I would like to see her put everything else aside from that. She&#8217;s got people working on these things.&#8221;
Following the press conference, Billie Jean King said on Twitter that she never intended to persuade Serena Williams to stop fighting for equality. “I would never ask anyone to stop fighting for equality,” she wrote. “In everything she does, Serena shines a light on what all of us must fight for in order to achieve equality for all.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I would never ask anyone to stop fighting for equality. In everything she does, Serena shines a light on what all of us must fight for in order to achieve equality for all.
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillieJeanKing/status/1150097664970821633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Billie Jean King <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35710/billie-jean-king-serena-williams-was-robbed-sexism-paul-bois">previously came to Williams&#8217; defense</a> when the tennis player went ballistic at the U.S. Open last year — where she openly screamed at the chair umpire Carlos Ramos for calling penalties she deemed unfair. After unsuccessfully demanding that the umpire issue her an &#8220;apology,&#8221; Williams became so enraged that she smashed her tennis racket into the ground. King said, however, that Serena Williams was a victim of the &#8220;patriarchy.&#8221;
&#8220;For Williams, and for many other women who have experienced an abuse of power at their workplaces, there was more at stake,&#8221; said King. &#8220;Did Ramos treat Williams differently than male players have been treated? I think he did. Women are treated differently in most arenas of life. This is especially true for women of color.&#8221;
&#8220;I hope every single girl and woman watching yesterday’s match realizes they should always stand up for themselves and for what they believe is right. Nothing will ever change if they don’t,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Women are taught to be perfect. We aren’t perfect, of course, and so we shouldn’t be held to that standard. We have a voice. We have emotions. When we react adversely to a heated professional situation, far too often, we’re labeled hysterical. That must stop.&#8221;

Serena Williams: I Will Never ‘Stop Fighting For Equality’

One of the world&#8217;s best female tennis players <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/tennis/barbora-strycova-slams-serena-williams-for-bulls-us-open-meltdown/news-story/0bfddf5bba2afe9f25b39eca5b9f4999">slammed Serena Williams</a> for her meltdown at the U.S. Open, bluntly calling it &#8220;bulls***&#8221;.
Barbora Strycova, who is ranked #25 in the world, spoke with Czech website Sport.CZ about Williams claiming both during and after the match that chair umpire Carlos Ramos had displayed sexism when he hit her with three code violations leading to a game penalty. Williams called Ramos a &#8220;thief&#8217; and a &#8220;liar&#8221; for charging her with a point penalty, and also slammed her racket to the court, breaking it during the match.
Strycova said Williams&#8217; tantrum was triggered by her desperation from Japan&#8217;s Naomi Osaka playing better and leading her during the match. She stated:
<blockquote>
This is a bulls***, for umpires being women or men doesn&#8217;t matter. In comparison, I never saw (Rafael) Nadal shouting like that with an umpire. Ramos is tough, one of the best umpires in the world. He did what he had to do in that match, because she overstepped the limit. Did she have to behave differently only because she was Serena Williams? I find it interesting that she did it only when she was losing.
</blockquote>
Strycova said she didn&#8217;t understand why the WTA Tour and US Tennis Association released statements supporting Williams. She commented, &#8220;Me, as a woman, take a lot of warnings. The WTA defense surprised me. Will rules change in Serena&#8217;s matches? If it&#8217;s like this, let me know.&#8221;
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova also criticized Williams this week, writing in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/opinion/martina-navratilova-serena-williams-us-open.html?module=Uisil">The New York Times</a>, &#8220;We cannot measure ourselves by what we think we should also be able to get away with. In fact, this is the sort of behavior that no one should be engaging in on the court &#8230; I don&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s a good idea to apply a standard of, &#8216;If men can get away with it, women should be able to, too.&#8217; Rather, I think the question we have to ask ourselves is this: What is the right way to behave to honor our sport and to respect our opponents?&#8221;

Czech Tennis Star Calls Serena Willams’ U.S. Open Meltdown ‘Bulls***’

The US Open&#8217;s women&#8217;s finals on Saturday took a political turn when second place finisher Serena Williams went apoplectic over controversial calls against her by umpire Carlos Ramos, whom she absurdly smeared as a sexist.
While Williams was immediately backed by the Women&#8217;s Tennis Association (WTA) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and hailed as a hero by countless feminists and the establishment media, Ramos kept quiet, as International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules bar umpires from commenting on their matches.
But Ramos has finally broken his silence regarding the backlash, <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCAKCN1LS0GI-OCASP">speaking</a> to Portugal&#8217;s Tribuna Expresso. &#8220;I am good, under the circumstances,&#8221; he told the paper.
&#8220;It&#8217;s an unhappy situation but à la carte refereeing doesn&#8217;t exist,&#8221; added the 47-year-old seasoned umpire. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you worry about me!&#8221;
Ramos told the paper that he avoided hitting the streets of New York after the controversial match to sidestep any potential &#8220;complicated situations.&#8221;
Other umpires are reportedly not so cool with the outrageous smearing of Ramos. According to a <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/umpires-may-boycott-serena-williams-matches-after-outburst-at-us-open-final-fwgv97swz">report</a> from The London Times, an anonymous official said there&#8217;s &#8220;a growing consensus that umpires were &#8216;not supported&#8217; by the USTA on several occasions, and that Ramos was &#8216;thrown to the wolves for simply doing his job and was not willing to be abused for it.'&#8221; They are reportedly considering a boycott of Williams&#8217; matches &#8220;until she apologises for vilifying Ramos and calling him a &#8216;liar&#8217; and a &#8216;thief,'&#8221; says the report.
Moreover, a source identified as a tennis &#8220;senior figure&#8221; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/11/tennis-umpires-union-serena-williams-us-open-final-carlos-ramos">told</a> The Guardian, &#8220;There is a lot of unhappiness in the umpiring community because no one is standing up for officials. Umpires keep asking: &#8216;What if it was me in that chair on Saturday?&#8217; There is a widespread feeling that Carlos was hung out to dry for nearly 48 hours and that no one is standing up for officials.&#8221;
On Monday, the ITF finally backed Ramos via a statement. &#8220;Carlos Ramos is one of the most experienced and respected umpires in tennis,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Mr Ramos&#8217;s decisions were in accordance with the relevant rules and were reaffirmed by the US Open&#8217;s decision to fine Ms Williams for the three offences. &#8230; It is understandable that this high-profile and regrettable incident should provoke debate. At the same time, it is important to remember that Mr Ramos undertook his duties as an official according to the relevant rulebook and acted at all times with professionalism and integrity.&#8221;
Ramos will return to the chair on Friday, officiating the men&#8217;s semi-final of the Davis Cup, he confirmed.

US Open Umpire Carlos Ramos Breaks Silence After Serena Williams Debacle; Officials Reportedly Considering Boycott Of Williams’ Matches

Gender

Australian cartoonist Mark Knight was hit with massive backlash for depicting tennis superstar Serena Williams&#8217; US Open meltdown on Saturday in a cartoon for the Herald Sun.
Knight was immediately knocked as racist and sexist for drawing an angry Williams with exaggerated features stomping on her tennis racket with a pacifier nearby on the court. In the background, the chair umpire is shown asking 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, &#8220;Can you just let her win?&#8221;
But Knight is refusing to apologize and standing by his drawing, as are his colleagues at the <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/herald-sun-backs-mark-knights-cartoon-on-serena-williams/news-story/30c877e3937a510d64609d89ac521d9f?utm_campaign=EditorialSF&amp;utm_content=SocialFlow&amp;utm_source=HeraldSun&amp;utm_medium=Twitter">Herald Sun</a>. &#8220;It had nothing to do with gender or race,&#8221; the seasoned cartoonist explained in a video for the paper.
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&#8220;It had nothing to do with gender or race.&#8221;
Herald Sun backs Mark Knight&#8217;s cartoon on Serena Williams: <a href="https://t.co/i1NBGO8xJw">https://t.co/i1NBGO8xJw</a> <a href="https://t.co/BTFONVWHh8">pic.twitter.com/BTFONVWHh8</a>
&#8212; Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) <a href="https://twitter.com/theheraldsun/status/1039287594012626944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I drew this cartoon Sunday night after seeing the US Open final, and seeing the world&#8217;s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting,&#8221; Knight said. &#8220;The cartoon about Serena is about her poor behaviour on the day, not about race. The world has just gone crazy.&#8221;
Critics were offended by the depiction of Williams in particular, suggesting she was drawn as a &#8220;racist caricature.&#8221; Others highlighted the &#8220;<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-whitewashing-of-naomi-osaka_us_5b967eb3e4b0cf7b004209b5">whitewashed</a>&#8221; depiction of Osaka, who has Haitian and Japanese heritage; in the cartoon she has blonde hair and looks &#8220;white.&#8221;
Fellow cartoonists and Herald Sun editors, however, have come to the defense of Knight, slamming the backlash as evidence that the world has become too &#8220;PC&#8221; (politically correct).
As noted by the Herald Sun, fellow cartoonist Michael Leunig said Knight&#8217;s cartoon was not offensive, but truthful.
&#8220;I saw Knight&#8217;s cartoon and was not offended or angered. I saw nothing abusive or malicious. In fact there is truth at the heart of it,&#8221; said Leunig. &#8220;It&#8217;s getting harder to be a cartoonist in this crazy anxious world &#8212; in this fragile angry humourless environment where leniency and understanding are in dangerous decline, and where psychic infections spread chaotically on social media with terrible consequences.&#8221;
Cartoonist Paul Zanetti said he was stunned by the backlash Knight received. &#8220;All he has done as cartoonists do is tell the truth. All he did was depict her in satirical manner,&#8221; said Zanetti. &#8220;It&#8217;s PC madness.&#8221;
&#8220;[Knight&#8217;s] cartoon is not racist or sexist &#8230;. it rightly mocks poor behavior by a tennis legend &#8230; Mark has the full support of everyone,&#8221; echoed Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston.
&#8220;World&#8217;s gone mad when cartoonist is targeted for saying tennis player spat the dummy-so sick of PC BS as too many confect an issue to be outraged about-that&#8217;s what this is about &#8230; Mark Knight&#8217;s a man of the greatest character-proud he&#8217;s in our paper,&#8221; said Herald Sun Sunday Editor Nick Papps.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/Knightcartoons?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Knightcartoons</a> cartoon is not racist or sexist &#8230;. it rightly mocks poor behavior by a tennis legend &#8230; Mark has the full support of everyone <a href="https://twitter.com/theheraldsun?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@theheraldsun</a> <a href="https://t.co/KWMT3QahJh">pic.twitter.com/KWMT3QahJh</a>
&#8212; damon johnston (@damonheraldsun) <a href="https://twitter.com/damonheraldsun/status/1039312474942492672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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World&#8217;s gone mad when cartoonist is targeted for saying tennis player spat the dummy-so sick of PC BS as too many confect an issue to be outraged about-that&#8217;s what this is about with <a href="https://twitter.com/Knightcartoons?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Knightcartoons</a>,Mark Knight&#8217;s a man of the greatest character-proud he&#8217;s in our paper <a href="https://t.co/LkvlTejoC9">https://t.co/LkvlTejoC9</a>
&#8212; Nick Papps (@SundayHSEditor) <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayHSEditor/status/1039316480439943168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Criticism of Mark Knight&#8217;s Serena Williams cartoon shows the world has gone too PC &amp; misunderstands the role of news media cartoons and satire. Poor behaviour in any sport needs to be called out. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/media?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#media</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cartoons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cartoons</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/markknight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#markknight</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Knightcartoons?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Knightcartoons</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/theheraldsun?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@theheraldsun</a> <a href="https://t.co/KQFuvIJp0Q">https://t.co/KQFuvIJp0Q</a> <a href="https://t.co/sRo3AQ1cJW">pic.twitter.com/sRo3AQ1cJW</a>
&#8212; Michael Miller (@mm_newscorpaus) <a href="https://twitter.com/mm_newscorpaus/status/1039299620780695554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Australia&#8217;s finest cartoonist Mark Knight has the strongest support of his colleagues for his depiction of Serena Williams&#8217; petulance. It&#8217;s about bad behaviour, certainly not race. The PC brigade are way off the mark&#8230;again. <a href="https://t.co/CeHaoRG6gf">pic.twitter.com/CeHaoRG6gf</a>
&#8212; Peter Blunden (@PeterBlunden_) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterBlunden_/status/1039307087237369857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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If the Herald Sun&#8217;s stance was in anyway unclear, here is the cover for Wednesday&#8217;s paper:
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Tomorrow&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/theheraldsun?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@theheraldsun</a> front page tonight <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/auspol?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#auspol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/springst?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#springst</a> <a href="https://t.co/2nuLbKppku">pic.twitter.com/2nuLbKppku</a>
&#8212; damon johnston (@damonheraldsun) <a href="https://twitter.com/damonheraldsun/status/1039477479486849024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Cartoonist Slammed As ‘Racist’ For Serena Williams Cartoon Stands His Ground, ‘Herald Sun’ Backs Him

Race

Tennis icon Billie Jean King, the feminist hero who beat an aging Bobby Riggs in the 1973 &#8220;Battle of the Sexes&#8221; matchup, believes Serena Williams throwing an unsportsmanlike temper tantrum on the tennis court was in revolt to the patriarchy&#8217;s &#8220;abuse of power.&#8221;
Over the weekend, Serena Williams acted like a spoiled toddler during the US Open when she openly screamed at the chair umpire Carlos Ramos for calling penalties she deemed unfair. After unsuccessfully demanding that the umpire issue her an &#8220;apology,&#8221; Williams became so enraged with the matchup that she smashed her tennis racket into the ground.
Any outside observer would call this a meltdown, but Billie Jean King says that Serena Williams was reacting to injustice. In a Washington Post op-ed, King <a href="http://,%20who%20also%20defends%20Naomi%20Osaka%20and%20the%20legitimacy%20of%20the%20Haitian-Japanese%20athlete%E2%80%99s%20first%20Grand%20Slam%20win,/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">writes</a>:
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[F]or [Williams], and for many other women who have experienced an abuse of power at their workplaces, there was more at stake.
Did Ramos treat Williams differently than male players have been treated? I think he did. Women are treated differently in most arenas of life. This is especially true for women of color. And what played out on the court yesterday happens far too often. It happens in sports, in the office and in public service. Ultimately, a woman was penalized for standing up for herself. A woman faced down sexism, and the match went on.
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All of that woke sermonizing falls apart, of course, when one realizes that Serena Williams lost the tennis matchup to &#8212; wait for it &#8212; a woman. And not even a white woman: a Haitian-Japanese newcomer. If anything, Serena Williams&#8217; narcissism has overshadowed a notable athlete&#8217;s fair accomplishment, which her supporters have been all-too-giddy enough to enable.
&#8220;I found myself in similar situations in my career; once, I even walked off the court in protest,&#8221; writes King, who goes on to encourage female tennis players to always stand up to the injustice of the patriarchy:
<blockquote>
I hope every single girl and woman watching yesterday&#8217;s match realizes they should always stand up for themselves and for what they believe is right. Nothing will ever change if they don&#8217;t.
Women are taught to be perfect. We aren&#8217;t perfect, of course, and so we shouldn&#8217;t be held to that standard. We have a voice. We have emotions. When we react adversely to a heated professional situation, far too often, we&#8217;re labeled hysterical. That must stop.
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King pins all of the blame on umpire Ramos for enforcing the rules, which includes not accepting hand signals from the coach.
&#8220;He made himself part of the match,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;He involved himself in the end result. An umpire&#8217;s job is to keep control of the match, and he let it get out of control. The rules are what they are, but the umpire has discretion, and Ramos chose to give Williams very little latitude in a match where the stakes were highest.&#8221;

Billie Jean King: Serena Williams Is A Victim Of The Patriarchy

Feminism

After a week off, Rush Limbaugh returned to his golden EIB mic on Monday to address all the hysteria surrounding the latest inevitably overblown political and social crises, including the upset defeat of reigning tennis champion Serena Williams at the hands of rising star Naomi Osaka. Since the Left spent the weekend politicizing Williams&#8217; loss, Limbaugh decided he&#8217;d take a stab at interpreting the incident through a political lens.
&#8220;The comparisons between Serena Williams and Hillary Clinton and Naomi Osaka and Donald Trump are just stunning if you stop to think about it and if you know what happened,&#8221; said Limbaugh.
After rehashing Williams&#8217; meltdown in the finals, in which she got &#8220;skunked&#8221; 6-2 and 6-4 by the 20-year-old upstart Japanese player, and the crowd ultimately making Osaka &#8220;feel like excrement for daring to beat&#8221; her, Limbaugh unpacked his premise: Williams blaming the &#8220;unfair&#8221; judges and the &#8220;elite circling the wagons&#8221; to defend her complaint, he said, is eerily similar to another recent upset.
&#8220;Serena Williams was left to complain that the judges were being unfair, the referees were unfair. She threw her racket in disgust after losing a point, started shouting that she&#8217;s never cheated, that she&#8217;s honest, that she&#8217;s got a daughter now, she&#8217;s tried to be an excellent role model, demanding that the referee owe her an apology,&#8221; said Limbaugh. &#8220;And the tennis elite circling the wagons around her thinking the referee blew it. They had no problem booing the winner at the U.S. Open. They booed the winner! I&#8217;m telling you, folks, the comparisons are many.&#8221;
He continued: &#8220;That U.S. Open women&#8217;s tennis final, a microcosm for how Trump is treated by the elites in Washington. Same thing. How all of us are treated, in fact. Expected to lose. Expected to be second or third class. Supposed to apologize for winning and then reject the victory and give it back, make allegations that our victory was tainted by cheating that benefited us.&#8221;
Limbaugh later described the awards ceremony in more detail, &#8220;&#8217;cause I&#8217;m telling you that the similarities are striking&#8221;:
<blockquote>
Limbaugh: At the awards ceremony, the winner, 20-year-old winner, Naomi Osaka covered her face with her visor and cried. The crowd booed her! The president, the chairman of the United States Tennis Association, a woman named Katrina Adams opened the awards ceremony by criticizing the winner and speaking longingly of the loser. The chairman and president of the USTA actually said while the winner is there holding her trophy, &#8220;Perhaps it&#8217;s not the finish we were looking for today, but, Serena, you are a champion of all champions.&#8221; I&#8217;m sorry. &#8220;Perhaps this is not the finish we were looking for today, but Hillary you are the women of all women, you&#8217;re the champion of all champions.&#8221;
And then the president of the United States Tennis Association turned and addressed the crowd and said, &#8220;This mama,&#8221; meaning Serena Williams, &#8220;This mama is a role model and respected by all.&#8221; This role model had just embarrassed herself with numerous meltdowns, demanding apologies, accusing the referee of cheating her, not being fair and all this. It&#8217;s classic. There are no manners anywhere. There is not a single institution, it seems, that we can turn to and rely on for just common decency. And I&#8217;ll tell you why. It&#8217;s because every damn thing in life that the left has touched has been politicized by its ideology, liberalism.
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Video of the rather surreal award ceremony &#8212; filled with boos from the crowd and tears from Osaka &#8212; below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="372" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jCm3BemDlj8" width="662"></iframe></div>
Transcript via <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/09/10/tennis-through-the-prism-of-politics/">RushLimbaugh.com</a>

Limbaugh: Here’s How Serena Vs. Osaka Is Just Like Hillary Vs. Trump

Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton

Rush Limbaugh

Serena Williams is in hot water after blaming an on-court loss at the U.S. Open on rampant sexism within the sport of tennis.
Sports journalists and women&#8217;s rights activists have been quick to take Serena&#8217;s side, claiming that the superstar player is treated differently than male competitors in the same sport, and that Serena is unfairly maligned as &#8220;difficult&#8221; and &#8220;explosive,&#8221; even as men who have a less-than-stellar on-court demeanor are beloved and hailed as mere &#8220;bad boys.&#8221;
But for a so-called &#8220;feminist&#8221; and dedicated supporter of women in tennis, Serena Williams sure takes her anger out on a lot of female judges.
Austen Fletcher made a super-cut.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
[VIDEO]: If Serena Williams is &#8220;fighting for women&#8217;s rights and for women&#8217;s equality&#8221; why does she have a history of harassing and intimidating women line judges/players? She told one woman she was &#8220;unattractive inside&#8221; and threatened to hit another.
When is it feminsim? <a href="https://t.co/7fh3GQFPPL">pic.twitter.com/7fh3GQFPPL</a>
&#8212; Austen Fletcher (@fleccas) <a href="https://twitter.com/fleccas/status/1038690267941953536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
Maybe her idea of &#8220;pushing equality&#8221; means physically intimidating both genders equally?

WATCH: For A Dedicated Feminist, Serena Williams Yells At A Lot Of Female Judges

Japanese newcomer Naomi Osaka defeated legendary tennis pro, Serena Williams, in a shocking end to a US Open that seemed tailor-made for a Williams comeback.
But Serena Williams isn&#8217;t quietly accepting her defeat. In a series of comments made both during and after the match Saturday night, Williams accused professional tennis of rampant sexism and blamed a line judge, who called her out for receiving coaching from the sidelines, for discriminating against her because she is female.
During the match, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/09/us/serena-williams-sexism-tennis-controversy/index.html">according to CNN</a>, line judge Carlos Ramos <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/09/us/serena-williams-sexism-tennis-controversy/index.html">handed Williams a series of code violations</a> for receiving hand signals and coaching from the sidelines. Williams&#8217; coach later <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/09/08/patrick-mouratoglou-i-was-coaching-serena-during-match/">admitted to catching Williams&#8217; attention</a>, but not until after Serena Williams earned other penalties for smashing her racket in frustration and for hurling &#8220;verbal abuse&#8221; at the referee.
As the pair took the podium to receive their awards, the crowd booed Osaka, and even the commentators tried to soothe Williams in defeat, clearly buying into her feminist rhetoric, leaving Osaka in tears and <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/09/08/its-shameful-what-us-open-did-to-naomi-osaka/?utm_source=NYPTwitter&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=SocialFlow">apologizing for her own earned victory</a>.
In the press conference that followed, Williams tried to play off her loss as the result of abject sexism on the part of both Ramos and professional tennis, suggesting that tennis lionizes players like John McEnroe &#8212; the &#8220;bad boy&#8221; of tennis who earned <a href="https://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson/status/1038815153037426688">scorn for his on-court behavior</a> &#8212; and claimed she was &#8220;fighting for women&#8217;s rights,&#8221; not just for herself but for Osaka, who out-played her.
&#8220;I&#8217;m here fighting for women&#8217;s rights and for women&#8217;s equality and for all kinds of stuff. For me to say &#8216;thief&#8217; and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark,&#8221; she said.
She continued: &#8220;He&#8217;s never taken a game from a man because they said &#8216;thief.&#8217; For me it blows my mind. But I&#8217;m going to continue to fight for women.&#8221;
Plenty of female commentators piled on, with few daring to criticize Williams, not just for her on-court behavior, but her on-court play.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;Serena Williams was punished for showing emotion, for defiance, for being the player she has always been&#8212;driven, passionate, proud and fully human,&#8221; writes <a href="https://twitter.com/rtraister?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rtraister</a> <a href="https://t.co/E4yfpPIqgo">https://t.co/E4yfpPIqgo</a>
&#8212; The Cut (@TheCut) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheCut/status/1038780048935972864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
Astute conservative commentator Larry Elder was one of the first to call out Williams&#8217; supporters.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Tennis commentators feared being called &#8220;racist&#8221; if they are honest&#8211;<a href="https://twitter.com/serenawilliams?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@serenawilliams</a> got outplayed from the start, knew it, and pulled a Mike Tyson by biting the chair umpire&#8217;s ear.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UsOpenFinal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UsOpenFinal</a>
&#8212; Larry Elder (@larryelder) <a href="https://twitter.com/larryelder/status/1038806941512785922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
Osaka remains the winner of the match.

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