DIANA writes:

Sometimes I feel as if I am living in a country that’s been hijacked. Pretty much everything has become “365 black.”

This has happened even to tennis. I watched the women’s final of the U.S. Open yesterday because I was certain Serena Williams would lose – and she did! I am not alone in despising Williams. It was a wonderful moment. But not without some drama, as I will relate.

Before the final, Queen Latifah led an all-black gospel chorus in some horrible call-and-response thing about 9/11. I turned the sound off. The color guard was half black. The entire spectacle, the music, the words, the feel, was black.

During the match, Williams picked a fight with the chair umpire over an infraction, (she had yelled “Come on!” after hitting a ball, thus technically interfering with the play of her opponent, Samantha Stosur) for which she was penalized a point. The American crowd got whipped up into a pro-Serena frenzy, which was exactly what she intended. She was being beaten badly by an Australian woman, and the only arrow left in her quiver was to turn the crowd against her foreign opponent. In a second the crowd became a hooting howling mob. I thought Stosur might lose her composure, but she didn’t. She kept it together and won in straight sets.

Most of the commenters in this New York Times post agree with my opinion of Serena.

Laura writes:

This is the second major outburst by Wiliams at the U.S. Open. She berated a lineswoman in 2009, and was fined and penalized.

Yesterday, she pointedly threatened the female referee. This is some of what Serena said to her:

“Aren’t you the one who screwed me over last time here? Do you have it out for me? That’s totally not cool.”

“If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way. You’re out of control. You’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside.”

“Code violation for this? I expressed who I am. We’re in America last time I checked.”

           — Comments —

Diana writes:

In the interests of brevity, I didn’t go into the whole business with Serena berating the chair umpire. It was even worse than what you have indicated, continuing through several games. Among the elegant, classy and mature things Williams said: “I hate you.”

Doesn’t this just sound like a three year old having a tantrum?

What’s saddest is the idiotic, “Serena is good for the game” talk. People who say this are delusional. Serena Williams is terrible for women’s tennis.

Women’s tennis is not a popular sport. The money is entirely generated from corporate sponsorship. There were empty seats at yesterday’s final, and it wasn’t because of 9/11 – every football game
was sold out.

The closest that women’s ever came to popularity was the heyday of Chris Evert. Her on-court behavior was never less than exemplary. (Off court–another story.) Compare and contrast that to Serena Williams.

After the match, Williams sat down next to Stosur and chatted amicably, which was taken by some as a friendly gesture. Ha. It was a manipulative attempt to make good after she’d failed in her attempt to derail a determined opponent. And in the after-match interview, Williams went on and on about her favorite subject: herself.

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