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‘Terrible Disservice To Women’s Rights’ — Here Are The Reactions To Serena Williams’ US Open Meltdown

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A chorus of media spoke out after Serena Williams accused umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism following her Saturday U.S. Open Finals loss to Japan’s Naomi Osaka.

The majority defended Williams, including the legendary Billie Jean King. Several supporters quoted a quickly released Washington Post column by Sally Jenkins entitled, “At U.S. Open, power of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka is overshadowed by an umpire’s power play.” (RELATED: Serena Williams Plays The ‘Woman Card’ In US Open Dispute With Umpire)

Williams abused her racket, but Ramos did something far uglier: He abused his authority. Champions get heated — it’s their nature to burn. All good umpires in every sport understand that the heart of their job is to help temper the moment, to turn the dial down, not up, and to be quiet stewards of the event rather than to let their own temper play a role in determining the outcome. Instead, Ramos made himself the chief player in the women’s final. He marred Osaka’s first Grand Slam title and one of Williams’s last bids for all-time greatness. Over what? A tone of voice. Male players have sworn and cursed at the top of their lungs, hurled and blasted their equipment into shards, and never been penalized as Williams was in the second set of the U.S. Open final.

Australian journalists Peter Lalor and Caroline Wilson were in the minority in their criticism of Williams.

“It was her McEnroe moment, it was hard to watch,” Lalor said on “Offsiders” ABC Sunday morning. “Nobody owes you an apology, you owe a lot of people an apology and when you calm down, I hope you realize that.”

“The comment about having a daughter, women around the world would have cringed at that,” Wilson said. “This is a woman who threatened to shove a ball down an umpire’s throat and was only fined $10,000. This is a woman who, again, verbally threatened a linesman in 2014. People have not stood up to Serena Williams.”

A few others dared to criticize the tennis star.

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