U.S. Open: Naomi Osaka wins historic women’s final over Serena Williams

Naomi Osaka was out-playing Serena Williams and deserved all the acclaim for her historic win, a straight-sets victory of 6-2, 6-4, but the women’s final at the U.S. Open will be forever remembered as the fight Serena Williams got into with the chair umpire.

Naomi Osaka is the first Japanese player to win the U.S. Open, but that’s not what most people will take away from it. Serena Williams was fined three times for infractions during the match, including player coaching, breaking her racquet, and then the final blow, when she continued arguing with chair umpire Carlos Ramos.

First, there was the player coaching from the box. That was the warning. Patrick Mouratoglou was coaching with hand signals. He claims she didn’t see him anyway. He admitted it honestly afterward. Do the other coaches do it? Yes. It doesn’t seem like Williams even heard the warning. Was umpire Ramos in the wrong? No, those are the rules. However, the stakes were a grand slam final, and it would have probably been better to let it go, even if he was right.

His coaching gesture:

Here’s Mouratoglou’s answer.

The racquet violation was the penalty point. Williams, who was likely unaware of the first warning, was issued a full penalty point for infraction No. 2. It was clearly a high-stakes match and a lot of pressure for the American. The point was justified, we’ve seen this so many times before from several players, including high-octane matches.

But then the arguing continued, with the 23-time slam champ accusing Ramos. Here are some of the quotes via The Telegraph.

"“You are attacking my character.”“You are a liar.”“You are never going to be on my court ever again.”“Say you are sorry.” “How dare you insinuate I was cheating.”“You stole a point from me. You are a thief too.”"

The “thief” comment caused the third code violation and prompted the game penalty in the crucial last set, making it 5-3. Williams called out the officials to lodge her complaint, and probably vent some frustration.

It’s a shame it came down to this. To see the legendary Williams emotionally crumple during the match in this way, was a sad spectacle. Perhaps Ramos was overzealous in his violation handouts, but it’s hard to argue against him with Williams continuing to get into it with him throughout the match. But you couldn’t help but feel for her too.

Would she have lost anyway? Most likely. Osaka was out-playing the tennis legend in every way and deserved all the praise for the win. She became the first Japanese player to win a grand slam, and at such a young age, 20. She played her idol Serena and won fair and square.

Williams also rose to the occasion during the trophy celebration, and graciously gave all the praise to the winner, imploring the crowd to stop booing, and comforted her opponent, who was clearly shaken by the situation. It’s incredibly impressive that the world No. 19 was able to maintain her composure to achieve her historic win. None of the controversies should take away from her awesome milestone.

Here’s the type of class Williams displayed during the trophy presentation.

However, the women’s U.S. Open final is just another example of why this year’s last grand slam has been frankly a fiasco, from the disastrous, unhealthy conditions during record heat, the lack of ventilation with the enclosed roof, and now a truly disappointing end to the women’s portion of the tournament.

I have to say that this has been one of the worst U.S. Opens in recent memory.

The men’s final will take place Sunday 4 p. m. EST, viewable on ESPN. Let’s hope the USTA can manage that final a bit better.

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