Because of her prior warning, she was then assessed a point penalty to Osaka.
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It started with an accusation.
Mike Bryan won his record-setting 18th Grand Slam doubles title and his second straight with Jack Sock, beating Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 6-3, 6-1.
Minori Nakano, a teacher and translator from the city of Kobe in western Japan, praised 20-year-old Osaka’s after-match comments in English as “so cool and yet so Japanese”.
Williams vehemently denied she was cheating on-court in the final, before slamming referee Carlos Ramos of sexism.
The 36-year-old Williams took umbrage with the statement, insisting that her coach simply gave her a thumbs up as a sign of support and encouragement.
Williams fumed at the violation and told Ramos: “I don’t cheat”. She interrupted the speaker, saying, “I don’t wanna be rude, but I don’t want to interrupt, do questions”. She remarked, “I would never cheat to win, I’d rather lose”. First, there was a warning for coaching.
“You keep fighting. then for her to come up with some of those shots, it was hard”. And that’s why he gave her the game violation.
That brought another tirade from Williams which was followed by a game penalty, bringing a shower of jeers from the packed stadium and another explosive outburst from the teary American.
Still visibly upset about the previous two violations, Williams wasn’t done chastising Ramos. “And so looking at this in the context of the game of tennis and the history of tennis, Serena is absolutely right to say that men could get away with it and women could not”. She also got a $3.8 million check.
Mouratoglou later said he had been giving her instructions, but added he did not think Williams had looked in his direction. That drew a second code violation – and, automatically, cost Williams a point.
“And when I turned around, it was 5-3, so I was a little bit confused”.
Although Williams won the next game, Osaka stayed focused to hold serve for the historic victory.
Osaka would win on her next service and take home the title.
The WTA said Williams and U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka both have “great integrity”. “Very unusual to happen in a grand slam final”, he said.
Yet many Japanese appear to have embraced the endearing Osaka, charmed by her off-court genuineness as much as her on-court ferocity.
He said, however, in an interview, that such behavior is common and it’s no different than any other coach would do. “I don’t understand why he would say that”. What is today? I was on my third surgery. It may have looked [like] I was getting coaching, but that’s what I do. We have to stop this hypocrisy Sascha [Osaka’s coach] was coaching too.
Williams said women players are treated differently to their male counterparts in the sport.
Williams talked about it afterward.
Keys emerged for the second set with an air of determination but she surrendered her serve in the first game with her 21st unforced error of the match.
“Because I know that, like, she really wanted to have the 24th Grand Slam, right?” “Theres a lot of men out here that have said a lot of things and because they are men, that doesnt happen”.
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Williams said she’s going to continue to fight for women. It blows my mind.
