Aussies slam Serena Williams' outburst
<p>After an eventful US Open final consisting of Serena Williams throwing a tantrum on the court, the champion player has been dubbed as disgraceful and disappointing by Australian media.</p>
<p>In the playoffs against 20-year-old Japanese player Naomi Osaka, Williams unleashed on the umpire when she was given a code violation for receiving instruction from her coach.</p>
<p>Clearly upset, she responded: “You owe me an apology. I’ve never cheated in my life. I have a daughter and stand for what’s right for her.”</p>
<p>After the events unfolded, Williams addressed her behaviour at a press conference.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen other men call other umpires several things. I’m here fighting for women’s rights and women’s equality,” she said.</p>
<p>“For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was sexist.</p>
<p>“He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief’. For me, it blows my mind.”</p>
<p>Her conduct was the topic of discussion for commentators as they slammed Williams' comments.</p>
<p>Appearing on ABC’s<em> Offsiders</em>, Fairfax’s Caroline Wilson took offence after Williams justified her behaviour with the women’s rights argument.</p>
<p>“She is doing a terrible disservice to women’s rights, to the #metoo movement, to gender equality,” said Wilson.</p>
<p>“To say she’s fighting for women’s rights when what she is, is a bad sport. She’s not fighting for women’s rights, that is a joke and that’s an insult to people who do fight for women’s rights and go through terrible bloodshed and heartbreak.”</p>
<p>Wilson backed up her statements by pointing out Williams' history of bad behaviour.</p>
<p>“I know we take sport incredibly serious these days but how seriously does Serena Williams take herself sometimes,” she said.</p>
<p>“I mean that is just disgraceful. The comment about having a daughter, women around the world would have cringed at that and will have a look at what she had to say afterwards.</p>
<p>“This is a woman who in 2009 threatened to shove a ball down an umpire’s f-ing throat and was only fined $10,000 by her sport. This is a woman who, again, verbally threatened a linesman in 2014. People have not stood up to Serena Williams.”</p>
<p><em>The Australian’s</em> Peter Lalor agreed with those sentiments, saying the outburst was hard to watch.</p>
<p>“It was her McEnroe moment,” he said on <em>Offsiders</em>. “It’s very disappointing to see a champion like that let themselves down. Nobody owes you an apology, you owe a lot of people an apology and when you calm down, I hope you realise that.</p>
<p>“It just felt uncomfortable because she really snapped, she really lost it. I felt sorry for her to some degree, but she doubled down later, and she really does owe her opponent an apology. It was poor form.”</p>
<p>On Channel 9’s <em>Sports Sunday</em>, Richard Freedman also had something to say.</p>
<p>“The whole bringing in the motherhood thing, ‘I’ve got a daughter and I don’t want her to think I was cheating’, what about blowing up in front of a stand full of people and international television audience and going on like a two-bob watch, is that what you want your daughter to see,” he said.</p>
<p>“And I cannot get over the crowds cheering that sort of behaviour – what sort of morons are sitting in those stands? – and booing the poor girl who stood at the other end, first grand slam, totally intimidated and then booing her. That’s just unbelievable.”</p>
<p>Osaka made history as she is the first Japanese person to take home the title, and the first Japanese player to win a grand slam event. The 20-year-old is still undefeated in 2018.</p>
<p>But while the achievement was meant to be celebrated, instead what Osaka was faced with was being overshadowed by her much more senior opponent.</p>
<p>Osaka even apologised for winning the match, saying, “I know everyone was cheering for her, I’m sorry it had to end like this.”</p>
<p><img style="width: 0px; height:0px;" src="/media/7820732/gettyimages-1029927246.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/61f03241787a4bf3bf11e1efaf563448" /></p>
<p>Williams was seen comforting the champion and asked the crowd to stop booing.</p>
<p>Do you agree with the umpire’s decision? Or are you on Serena Williams' side instead? Let us know in the comments below.</p>
