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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Serena Williams

Williams Told Ramos He’d ‘Never’ Ump Her Matches Again. U.S. Tennis Association Makes Move In Her Favor.

Sexism

Sports

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>
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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&#8217; U.S. Open Meltdown &#8216;Bulls***&#8217;

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&#8217; 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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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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 &#8216;Racist&#8217; For Serena Williams Cartoon Stands His Ground, &#8216;Herald Sun&#8217; 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>:
<blockquote>
[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.
</blockquote>
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.
</blockquote>
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.
</blockquote>
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 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&#8217;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.

Serena Williams Loses US Open To Newcomer, Blames &#8216;Sexism&#8217;

Wakanda may be forever, but for the French Open, it&#8217;s Wakanda never. 
Tennis champion Serena Williams wanted to wear a Wakanda-inspired catsuit for the French Open to show love for the Marvel movie &#8220;Black Panther,&#8221; only to be banned from doing so.
According to <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/serena-williams-black-panther-catsuit-banned_us_5b80173ae4b0729515126848">HuffPo</a>, Williams wore the catsuit in last spring&#8217;s tournament and it generated much attention. When discussing the new dress code for 2019, French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli said Williams will not be allowed to wear the outfit again.
&#8220;It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and place,&#8221; said Giudicelli, who went on to say the rule applies to other players with lavish outfits.
&#8220;I think that sometimes we&#8217;ve gone too far,&#8221; he added.
The dress code, however, will not be nearly as strict as the<a href="https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/about_wimbledon/clothing_and_equipment.html"> one at Wimbledon</a>, which mandates an entirely white ensemble. &#8220;White does not include off-white or cream,&#8221; the rules state.
Williams&#8217; catsuit first appeared at Roland Garros this past spring during her Grand Slam return from maternity leave. It was designed to &#8220;help prevent blood clots after Williams suffered a near-fatal episode following the birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia, last September,&#8221; reports HuffPo.
Williams said the catsuit made her feel like a &#8220;superhero&#8221; and even dedicated it to &#8220;all the moms out there that had a tough pregnancy and had to come back and try to be fierce.&#8221;
&#8220;I feel like a warrior in it, a warrior princess &#8230; from Wakanda, maybe,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2018/may/30/serena-williams-jokes-about-wakanda-inspired-catsuit-at-french-open-video">told reporters</a> in May. &#8220;I&#8217;ve always wanted to be a superhero, and it&#8217;s kind of my way of being a superhero.&#8221;

French Open Bans Serena Williams’ Wakanda-Inspired Catsuit

Serena Williams may be one of the world&#8217;s best tennis players &#8212; if not one of the greatest female tennis players in history &#8212; but according to the Washington Post, she&#8217;s also setting back the clock half a century when it comes to racism, sexism and homophobia.
Serena, you see, is due to give birth to her first child in just a few weeks, and as with most first time moms, Serena&#8217;s friends and family threw her a baby shower. Over the weekend, A-listers from the world of music, sports, entertainment, and fashion<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/08/06/serena-williams-has-a-star-studded-baby-shower-straight-out-of-the-1950s/?utm_term=.7e55a1deed2a"> convened in West Palm Beach for an adorable 1950s-themed bash</a>, complete with classic cars, a juke box and, of course, poodle skirts aplenty.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
FOREVER TYPE THING&#65039; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shakerattleandroll2017?src=hash">#shakerattleandroll2017</a> <a href="https://t.co/UZ5WWUMmqc">pic.twitter.com/UZ5WWUMmqc</a>
&#8212; LA LA (@lala) <a href="https://twitter.com/lala/status/893984460005404672">August 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
But as with most things in our world that are both cute and enjoyable, Serena&#8217;s baby shower was met with a wave of scorn and finger-wagging from leftist circles, as feminists took to social media to condemn the tennis star and her friends for glorifying an era where segregation was the norm, barefoot and pregnant women were chained to stoves, white men held all the power, and violence and bigotry were the norm.
How dare Serena and her friends enjoy the hilarious, if historically inaccurate trappings of a mid-century diner; didn&#8217;t they know that people of different races weren&#8217;t allowed to eat together? And how ridiculous is it that they&#8217;d be celebrating a pregant women, when women of the 1950s saw motherhood as a life-ending career choice that shackled them to a family?
Feminist professor Karen Dunak whined to WaPo&#8216;s audience:
<blockquote>
By glorifying 1950s culture in the political climate in which we live, these women, who assuredly would not want to return to Jim Crow-era Florida, unwittingly reinforced a dangerous nostalgia that obscures the era&#8217;s harsh historical realities. Although the 1950s were great for white, heterosexual Americans, for people of color and sexual minorities it was a time of racial violence and pervasive sexism and bigotry.
</blockquote>
Dunak went on to accuse Williams of &#8220;promot[ing] a romanticized history,&#8221; and providing &#8220;cultural justification&#8221; for the racist, sexist, classest, and even anti-LGBT policies of an era that happened more than three decades before Serena Williams was even born.
Oh, and Dusek also warned that by pulling on that poodle skirt and posing with a classic car, Williams and her friends were actively promoting Donald Trump&#8217;s vision of America. Celebrating the &#8220;nostalgic culture&#8221; of the 1950s, Dusek claims, feeds a &#8220;cultural nostalgia&#8221; that in turn gives rise not just to Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; slogan, but also the white nationalism that inspired the events in Charlottesville.&#8221;
That would, of course, be news to guests like Eva Longoria, who has been an outspoken opponent of Trump since before Trump was even elected, and to the Williams sisters who are, shall we say, likely not proponents of white supremacy.
But don&#8217;t tell that to Dusek &#8212; and don&#8217;t claim that a 50s-themed baby shower is all just good clean fun. In her final paragraph, Dusek issues a dire warning, that considering things &#8220;cute&#8221; and &#8220;fun&#8221; is a black hole that probably leads straight to Hitler.
Okay, so she doesn&#8217;t say Hitler exactly, but you get the point. You are no longer allowed to have fun, America. The feminists say so.

Leftists Claim Serena Williams&#8217; 1950s-Themed Baby Shower Encouraged Racism

On Sunday, tennis legend John McEnroe committed crimes against Feminism when he dared to say that tennis great Serena Williams, while being the greatest female player ever, is <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/17929/john-mcenroe-says-serena-williams-would-rank-700-amanda-prestigiacomo">not as good as male players</a>. McEnroe went on to rank Williams at around 700 in the men&#8217;s circuit. 
Despite all the glaring biological evidence to support McEnroe&#8217;s innocuous and obvious statement, the left went ahead and predictably branded the tennis star a sexist.
He&#8217;s not. He&#8217;s merely a truth-teller. 
In fact, in a video clip sure to make feminists&#8217; heads explode, Williams herself agreed that men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s tennis are entirely different games due to biology. Speaking with Late Night with David Letterman host David Letterman back in 2013, the Grand Slam queen even went on to explicitly state that she&#8217;d get her behind handed to her by male tennis star Andy Murray if the two were to play because, yes, he&#8217;s a man and she&#8217;s a woman. 
&#8220;Actually it&#8217;s funny, because Andy Murray, he&#8217;s been joking about myself and him playing a match. I&#8217;m like, &#8216;Andy, seriously, are you kidding me?&#8217; For me, men&#8217;s tennis and women&#8217;s tennis are completely, almost, two separate sports,&#8221; Williams told Letterman.
&#8220;If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0 in five to six minutes, maybe ten minutes,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;No, it&#8217;s true. It&#8217;s a completely different sport. The men are a lot faster and they serve harder, they hit harder, it&#8217;s just a different game.&#8221;
&#8220;I love to play women&#8217;s tennis. I only want to play girls, because I don&#8217;t want to be embarrassed,&#8221; Williams added. 
So, is Williams a sexist, too, or can we all just accept biology and move on? 
Relevant comments start at the five-minute mark: 
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ezwjJxXS718" width="854"></iframe></div>

WATCH: Serena Williams Once Told David Letterman She Couldn&#8217;t Compete With Men

David Letterman

John McEnroe

On Sunday, while promoting his new book <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/06/25/534149646/but-seriously-tennis-great-john-mcenroe-says-hes-seeking-inner-peace">But Seriously</a>, tennis legend John McEnroe uttered a controversial truth about female tennis phenom Serena Williams: Williams, dominant in the women&#8217;s game, would rank &#8220;like 700 in the world&#8221; on the men&#8217;s side. 
McEnroe explained that while there is &#8220;no question&#8221; Williams is the &#8220;best female player ever,&#8221; the men&#8217;s circuit &#8220;would be an entirely different story.&#8221; 
To the dismay of <a href="https://twitter.com/mirriam71/status/879174602701844485">biology-deniers</a> on the Left, McEnroe is exactly right about William&#8217;s competitive ranking in the men&#8217;s world. While Williams is dominant among women, her genetic make-up puts her at a major disadvantage against even average-performing men in the sport. 
<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201207/the-battle-the-sexes">Men are on average taller than women, have more muscle mass, stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments, have bigger hearts, a greater lung volume, and a higher red blood cell count.</a> Biology gives men the upper hand in most all sports, and the game of tennis is definitely one of them. 
But there&#8217;s even more evidence to back McEnroe&#8217;s assertion here. 
Looking at Williams&#8217; Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), which is the assigned numerical rating to all tennis players &#8212; both men and women &#8212; ranging on a 0 to 16.39 scale, the female athlete rates at 13.36, whereas dominant male tennis players like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic <a href="http://www.flotennis.com/article/44204-universal-tennis-rating-a-quick-tutorial#.WVD6BGjytPY">rate</a> at 16.26 and 16.27 respectively. The scale places Williams on-par with <a href="http://www.flotennis.com/article/50280-men-s-college-singles-ita-vs-utr#.WVD7RWjytPY">average men&#8217;s college players</a> (ranks about 97th out of the top 125 college men&#8217;s singles) and nowhere near top-world-ranked men. 
Furthermore, in 1998, Williams actually played a set against a male tennis player ranked 203 in the world, Germany&#8217;s Karsten Braasch. She got her butt handed to her in embarrassing fashion, taking a 6-1 loss as her opponent smoked cigarettes and sipped beer in between change-overs. 
&#8220;Braasch played a warmup round of golf in the morning, then came to Melbourne Park,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/aus/2017/01/21/serena-williams-nicole-gibbs-australian-open/96876832/">notes</a> USA Today. &#8220;Braasch would smoke cigarettes and sip beer during the changeovers, and to be honest no longer looked the part of a fit professional athlete. It made no matter. Braasch led 5-0 over Serena before winning the set 6-1.&#8221; 
Also, the opinions in the tennis-insider world tend to agree with McEnroe. When discussion brewed about Williams potentially facing off against tennis great Andy Murray, Jeff Tarango <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10148431/Wimbledon-2013-Serena-Williams-could-only-beat-men-ranked-in-the-300s-not-Andy-Murray-says-Jeff-Tarango.html">admitted</a> that Williams would be no match. Being generous, Tarango said Williams might be able to knock-off a male player ranked 300-350 due to their nerves. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to say 300-350, those guys aren&#8217;t used to playing for $500,000, they might start getting a little nervous and I think on a good surface on a good day, she could maybe take someone out,&#8221; he said. 
Here&#8217;s more tennis insiders&#8217; <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/could-serena-williams-beat-john-mcenroe-tennis-jimmy-kimmel-andy-murray-how-many-games">opinions</a> on such a match-up from For The Win&#8217;s Chris Chase (emphasis added): 
<blockquote>
[A]round the time of the Murray discussion, I polled some tennis insiders to see what they thought. Everyone agreed that Serena wouldn&#8217;t get a game off Murray and a few agreed that she wouldn&#8217;t win a point. No one believed she&#8217;d come close to beating a man in the top 100. When asked where in the men&#8217;s rankings Serena would be able to get a W, the answers ranged from &#8220;between 200 and 300&#8221; and &#8220;no one in the top 1,500.&#8221; (And let me add that the respondents were not people prone to hyperbole or sexism.) McEnroe himself once weighed in on the topic and said Serena might be able to be the No. 500 man in the world.
</blockquote>
It&#8217;s important to stress that none of this takes away from Williams&#8217; talent or success as a tennis star. Men and women are different, no matter what your pink-haired gender studies professor tells you. Without acknowledging this simple truth,we inevitably hurt women and take away from their well-deserved accomplishments. Williams is an all-star, a fierce, competitive champion who&#8217;s the greatest in her field, period. Comparing her to men in the same sport is a rather silly exercise and actually detracts from her legacy rather than doing it credit.

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Serena Williams

Articles tagged with Serena Williams

Williams Told Ramos He’d ‘Never’ Ump Her Matches Again. U.S. Tennis Association Makes Move In Her Favor.

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

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

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

Cartoonist Slammed As ‘Racist’ For Serena Williams Cartoon Stands His Ground, ‘Herald Sun’ Backs Him

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

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

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

Serena Williams Loses US Open To Newcomer, Blames ‘Sexism’

French Open Bans Serena Williams’ Wakanda-Inspired Catsuit

Leftists Claim Serena Williams’ 1950s-Themed Baby Shower Encouraged Racism

WATCH: Serena Williams Once Told David Letterman She Couldn’t Compete With Men

John McEnroe Says Serena Williams Would Rank 700 In Men’s Tennis. He’s Actually Right.