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The Forum > Article Comments > The natural enemy: Serena Williams and the sporting umpire > Comments

The natural enemy: Serena Williams and the sporting umpire : Comments

By Binoy Kampmark, published 12/9/2018

Should it matter this much? A wealthy, successful individual expressed fury at the most popular object of vitriol in any sport.

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Don't analyse players - they're just playing a game, nothing more serious. There are rules and procedures. All demand "sportsmanship".
Posted by Ponder, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 8:59:00 AM
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tantrum throwing at the highest degree even though she was caught out cheating. Yep just like the getup clowns and the Hilary tantrum throwers she digs in and gets the support of the swamp. I mean if an overpaid, self entiltled black woman is wrong then it certainly exposes themselves. Identity politics at it very worse!
Posted by runner, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 9:47:50 AM
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A digusting performance by a black woman who has been lead by weak white people to believe that she can act in a disgusting manner just because she is black woman.
Posted by ttbn, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 9:53:09 AM
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That cartoon was over the top just as her tatrum was over the top. It's a case of two wrongs still not getting it right. All it does is give the opportunists another jab in the arm.
Posted by individual, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 10:52:51 AM
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I've always loved Serena and her never ever quit attitude she takes to her game. And like the champion she is, picked herself up off of the floor and back into the match in almost every game she's played.

And the idol of many a young player, none more so than a 20 something Naomi Osaka who played her heart out and beat a below-par Serena fairly and squarely.

Yes, Serena lost it. A did her dumb coach whose activities and the point it cost Serena, also cost her the match? He should have been the only person there to receive the public bollocking?

The rules that Serena violated/flouted are the same for everyone, be they black white or brindle male or female.

The umpire is in an invidious position. And could/should receive more support from technology.

My heart bleeds for poor Naomi, whose feat and day was most cruelly ruined by the unsportsmanlike display from Serena, who failed to intimidate the other player or the professional and entirely impartial umpire.

Serena, may need to decide where she goes now and whether her tennis comes before family or whether the family comes first, and settles for doubles or something she can cope with, with her current fitness level?
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:23:15 AM
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It's tennis, for god's sake. Nobody cares.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:33:42 AM
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I'm still waiting for Williams' self pedestalled Sainthood to come around. Saint Serena of the Rich Dummy-Spit Woman anyone?

The most sickening thing was when William fake-comforted Osaka when the crowd was booing Osaka. This was booing that Williams' own hippo-baby actions triggered.

Behold Stomping Serena http://images.indianexpress.com/2018/09/serena-cartoon-759.jpg
Posted by plantagenet, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:49:43 AM
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Actually, Pete, later reports gleaned from the Audience, suggested strongly, they were booing Serena and the fake comfort she afforded Naomi

And while it is just a game like any other game, big prize money may be involved?

Moreover, the participating audience doesn't like cheats! Or dummy spit tantrums!

Unforced errors can cost the game, a purse and have many causes, like drugs or adrenalin, that stop kicking in due to overuse, overstimulation? Or being off your game due to the after-effects of various, recreational substances?

Time to end this sorry saga and Serena's singles career?

We've all shown our obvious prejudices! No names no pack drill!

Belabouring them won't make them clearer!
Alan B.
Posted by Alan B., Wednesday, 12 September 2018 1:37:35 PM
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The author of this article lost me when he couldn’t even gets his facts right about what happened.
From what he has written, he hasn’t even watched the match, so credibility zero.
I watched the match live, then watched replays several times to ensure my first impressions were correct.
I found it very telling that the commentators were preparing for Williams to explode after the second violation. They knew she has form and said she was going to go ballistic and she did.
It was the most self indulgent, self absorbed dummy spit I have seen in many years, surpassing even her shocking behaviour at the finals in 2009 and 2011.
Naturally it happened at a point in the match where she was losing, it always is with her, and naturally it was all about her. But when you bring your child into a tirade being watched by millions of people, you have definitely hit your use by date.
Serena has lost innumerable fans over this latest farce and she has ruined the image of what should have been a memorable career.
Posted by Big Nana, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 2:36:42 PM
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The caractiture was immediately recognised by all and sundry as Ms. Williams, so the original charge of "racism' is utter nonsense.
Posted by ttbn, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 3:37:34 PM
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//I watched the match live, then watched replays several times//

Jesus... get a life.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 6:04:51 PM
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It is the author Binoy, who I chose to call Kampy von Bismarck*, who we should be criticising!

* here is Secret footage of Kampy von http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asNsLcbIiNs

But don't tell anybody!
Posted by plantagenet, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 6:44:38 PM
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“Jesus, get a life”

What, I should spend my down time watching what passes for entertainment these days Toni? I have restricted movement these days and watch a tennis match usually at least once a day, but apparently at my advanced age I could find more worthwhile things to do.
Posted by Big Nana, Thursday, 13 September 2018 1:32:10 PM
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To watch Cricket, Tennis, bike riding, marathon in fact any sport that goes on & on & on for hours requires a mentality that should be looked into for a cure asap.
Posted by individual, Thursday, 13 September 2018 8:46:53 PM
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Turnbull's dummy spit is nearly as spectacular as Williams.
Posted by runner, Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:57:31 PM
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//What, I should spend my down time watching what passes for entertainment these days Toni?//

Well, at the least you should watch something more entertaining than tennis. Here's a 10-hour video of paint drying that I found on youtube; it would seem to fit the bill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGA-GCq7JWM

//I have restricted movement these days and watch a tennis match usually at least once a day, but apparently at my advanced age I could find more worthwhile things to do.//

Yes. Because it's hard to think of much that is less worthwhile than watching two supposedly grown adults hitting a ball back and forth to each other over a net whilst engaging in a competition to see who can make the silliest noises. Or at least, I assume that's what that ridiculous scoring system is supposed to be keeping track of. It never ceases to me amaze me that same people who gave us the brilliant metric system also gave us a scoring system that goes 0, 15, 30... 40? Mental.

Read a book (or listen to an audio book, it's basically the same thing with less strain on the eyes), do a crossword, watch a documentary, crochet, teach yourself a new language... good grief, there a zillions of things to do that don't involve atrophying your brain by watching tennis.
Posted by Toni Lavis, Friday, 14 September 2018 7:42:06 AM
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Big Nana & Toni,

I wanted both Serena and Naomi to win, but wasn't impressed with Serena's outburst. She's a champion, so she should have shrugged, copped it and moved on, to focus on trying to win the match. Who knows, she might have eventually won ?

Still, Naomi is a champion now, and probably, back in Japan, where they tend to disown mixed-race people, even if they are crowned Miss Japan, she's now become Japanese :)

And in Tahiti, she's their first world tennis champion ! Fantastique !

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Saturday, 15 September 2018 3:06:23 PM
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There may be something else here that is worth a comment.

1. Serena is advertising a new foam-based bedding system and she touts it as being ultra healthy. You will no doubt have seen tha ad where she jumps on the bed and says how great it is.

2. If she is actually using this bed herself then as the foam warms up it will spread along with soft body tissues. This causes tissue tearing and results in poor sleep, muscle damage, tiredness, fatigue and short concentration span.

3. This could explain the on-court behaviour if it is indeed true that she is using this bedding system. A person fatigued by sleeping on foam would definitely have a very short temper and flare up at the least problems.

4. The only safe bedding system must have high elasticity and the highest elasticity comes from steel springs padded with cotton wadding and not plastic foams.
Posted by FredM, Monday, 17 September 2018 5:19:23 AM
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//The only safe bedding system must have high elasticity and the highest elasticity comes from steel springs padded with cotton wadding and not plastic foams.//

Well this conversation has taken a strange turn indeed. Anyway...

Absolute poppycock, everybody knows that the best mattresses are 100% organic and come from the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta:

http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Mattresses
Posted by Toni Lavis, Monday, 17 September 2018 9:52:40 AM
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Toni,
With that sense of humour I can tell you are not sleeping on a foam mattress. Sealy Poturepedic, hmmm?
Posted by FredM, Monday, 17 September 2018 1:35:59 PM
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