Serena Williams used her tirade to try and manipulate the game in her favor. In tennis, due to the nature of the game, and because only TWO players are competing on the field of play, the mental strength of either opponent can be a fragile thing. Whoever has the upper hand can quickly see it shift across the net. We've seen this many times before, especially in womens-tennis where they only play two sets for a match-win. Therefore, the pressure to win the FIRST set is enormous, for losing it basically means the game is up already. Serena, obviously knowing all this and facing a rookie finalist, disgracefully exploited these facts to the fullest. But this time she went to far, way to far. There is no excuse for calling an umpire a thief and a liar. No one in their right mind would condone such language or any tantrums that followed. This was nothing more than blatant obstruction of her opponent. If Serena Williams says she feels cheated out of her 2nd set, I suggest she advocates women start playing FIVE sets. At least then she has rightfully earned her money for spending the same time on court as the men. She sure can hit her opponent hard enough to last the distance. (The umpire, that is, apart from the woman across the net...)
There has been that constant speculation with Serena and I will say not without some justification either. https://www.quora.com/Is-Serena-Williams-on-steroids I have to say if sudden uncontrollable rage is a sign of steroid use, she is a user. Because this is not her first melt down on a big stage.
Many do it, and many have been called out for it. Williams and her coach were seen manipulating the rules, in the eyes of the chair umpire, and were given a warning. Okay. A warning is a minor deal. If you were flashing hand signals to your player you simply stop and that's the end of the issue. But Serena Williams turned this incident into a major issue and she completely lost her mind on court. Her reaction to a simple warning was totally out of proportion and it seems she could not control her own emotions and mind. It looks like a bigger issue to me but that involves speculation as to what it could be. Whatever it is her sponsors and the USTA and ESPN cannot be happy about this massive black eye.
Apparently McEnroe admitted to steroid use, not a surprise given McEnroe's history of drug usage. As for Ille Nastase, who knows? I wouldn't be shocked but have never heard his name linked with steroids before. Empirically I do think a strong case can be made for Serena Williams' use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. But we may never have absolute proof of that.
She blew her cool and blew the match. Naomi was better than her yesterday and she tried to change it by causing a scene. Reminds me of what Mike Tyson did against Holyfield when he knew he couldn't win head up. Andrew Golata did the same thing twice. Osaka kept her cool and showed class and elegance throughout the match and after. She is the US Open Champion.
I think McEnroe admitted steroid use to recover from injury, but I do not believe that his outbursts early in his career were steroid related. I think he was just a volitile, spoiled, self centered, loudmouthed, Queens brat with no respect for others. Reminds me of another guy who's always in the news today.
Mostly it is because she and her sister so very obviously possess the physical development structure of men rather than women; but obviously that COULD simply be the result of the random roll of the genetic dice. On the other hand it could be a near lifetime of doping via means that slip past blood tests. Supposedly such drugs do exist. I don't know enough about it -- and nor do I really care -- but it is an area of speculation and has been since the pair of sisters hit the tennis scene decades ago.
Way to bring things around full circle to the object of your obsession (he's a tennis fan, I understand) but you are right about McEnroe just being a jackass.
I don't think there is any "genetic" justification for a player of her singular build in tennis. There are some women who are big shouldered but nothing like the overall look of Serena Williams. This speaks volumes, to me at least. https://vascularcme.com/2017/01/29/is-serena-williams-on-steroids-best-answer-so-far/ Have a look and see if you don't agree.
I have know and dealt with many rich, spoiled, loudmouthed guys from around Forest Hills in my life. That's probably one of the main reasons I did not like McEnroe and I do not like Trump. I was a big fan of Bjorn Borg and I hated McEnroe until Lendl came along. At least John seems to have grown up a bit.
Absolutely brilliant as a tennis player. Equally dismal as a poor sport and spoiled jerk. To his credit he is a good father and husband, reportedly. I could tell you of a video I saw of Trump opening some tennis courts at his hotel, or somewhere, and his amazing behavior but why feed your negative obsession even more. You can hate him without my help.
I think John got more out of his physical stature than any athlete I have ever seen. Maybe Gary Player is a close second, but in golf, the ball is just sitting there whereas in tennis guys are hitting it 130mph at your feet. He also has grown up to be a pretty good man with a sense of humor regarding his past history of asinine behavior. And he is Irish, so now I like him.
I have that connection too, the Irishness, to some degree. I don't know much about golf but if you are a golf historian you may be interested in my six degrees of Kevin Bacon connection to golf greatness. My former tennis partner was the son of Harvey Ward, part of a very famous golf showdown, so I'm told. So there's that. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/571428.The_Match
Harvey Ward is legendary in San Francisco especially. I used to play at Harding Park up there and there are great pictures of Harvey, Ken Venturi, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson from the second showdown at that great public course. Another great Irishman! Your partner is no doubt proud of his old man. He was respected and loved throughout the world of golf. Don't tell me Harvey's kid likes Trump too....
Yes, San Francisco. I am from the North Bay though I "walked away" from California. As for my partner he died from a Lou Gerhig type disease a few years ago, unfortunately. He never was around for Trump's rise to the presidency but I remember many years ago Bill, my partner, took much crap for admitting to a group of friends he listened to Rush Limbaugh. Even as gruff as he was he backed down a bit and I was surprised at the big negative response just for listening to a radio program (I was so naive then). But, yeah, he probably would've been a Trump voter. And he himself was an excellent golfer (held many course records around there) and made a living selling golf equipment from his van. And yes, he was very proud of his father.
The pressure to win the first set is there but not enormous. Pro players always look at it as a 3 set experience. Hell. when I played and lost the first set, unless my opponent outclassed me, I always thought of it as a 3 set match and so do the pros. They are so evenly matched today that they expect to win no matter if they lose the first set. If they don't believe that they can win, then they are guaranteed to lose. Serena has lost the first set many times and it only serves to light a fire.
What Serena did was completely unprofessional. Her message makes sense but she LIED (she definitely received coaching as proven) and she berated the judge with "APOLOGIZE TO ME!" over and over. I think the judge was just straight up annoyed with her nonsense after getting caught. That said, both men and women in Tennis receive coaching and it shouldn't be a problem. In high school I always looked to my coach when my opponent started serving wide on the base line. Pro's have coaches too.
Naomi is the future of women's tennis. A great athlete and a very smart player. She would have won this match regardless. Japan now has a great female tennis player to cheer for.
In a grand slam final the ref should use more restraint. She probably didn't notice the coach. She was livid and he just should have allowed her to calm down. Certainly not a game penalty. I felt bad for Naomi, who didn't rejoice because of this incident. But she was clearly the better player that day and probably the next great dominant female. Players curse the ref all the time and a smart ref lets them vent. Ask Jonny Mack and Andy Roddick. In high school coaching was legal and occurred at the odd game change-over.
I agree. But let's not play stupid here. She was being coached and he admitted it. Players get caught all the time by the media (because most chair ref's ignore it). She got caught with her hand in the cookie jar but I agree that coaching is no big deal. We agree here. If this were the superbowl and I saw a questionable holding scenario, I'm not throwing the flag. Let them play
