2018 U. S. Open Championships...ATP 2000...New York, New York U. S. A.

[stotty]

Novak was at his clinical best, Kei had no answers. Nadal, just too much time on the court at this point in his hard court career. Hard to see Del Po getting over on Novak.

I missed the game as it was too late over here. Del Potro has a reasonable chance. The courts are higher bouncing than in recent years apparently so if he can the ball in his wheelhouse often enough he may be able to hit Novak off.

Shame Rafa got injured. If there were grand slam events for players with the most injuries, Rafa would have more slams than anyone else for sure. He's missed ten slams completely through injury and bowed out of four others. In total Rafa has played 21 slams fewer than Roger.

[stotty]

Brilliant performance from Osaka who hardly put a foot wrong. Great clutch serving and she never let up on the ground shots either. Serena had a meltdown, to put it mildly. I genuinely think she received no coaching. Her coach made signals but she wasn't even looking. I think the coach may get fired!

[bottle]

Brilliant performance from Osaka who hardly put a foot wrong. Great clutch serving and she never let up on the ground shots either. Serena had a meltdown, to put it mildly. I genuinely think she received no coaching. Her coach made signals but she wasn't even looking. I think the coach may get fired!

I hope not. He's really a great coach, e.g., had her coming in all the time in the previous match against the slicey-dicey-drop-shotting Latvian.

[don_budge]

Disgraceful. Both Nadal and Williams.

[don_budge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OILrXggTjpQ

At 2.26 has Serena made a "Freudian Slip" when she says..."do you know how many other men...how many other men who do things that are much worse than that?" If we are to take her literally is she referring to herself as a man? I believe that is exactly what she has said. Very curious thing to say. Normally a woman might say something like "the men". Well these are anything but normal times and Serena Williams is anything but a "normal" character any way you choose to think about her. Who knows...one might think of her as a "hero".

[klacr]

I hope not. He's really a great coach, e.g., had her coming in all the time in the previous match against the slicey-dicey-drop-shotting Latvian.

Her coach admitted to coaching after the match.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stroke]

Serena simply showed us once again the essence of who she is. Her behavior was unacceptable. I was very disappointed but not surprised at the tv commentators take on the proceedings. They were just pitiful.

[don_budge]

Brilliant performance from Osaka who hardly put a foot wrong. Great clutch serving and she never let up on the ground shots either. Serena had a meltdown, to put it mildly. I genuinely think she received no coaching. Her coach made signals but she wasn't even looking. I think the coach may get fired!

It was a really super performance by an extremely polite and demure young lady. She handled the whole nonsense with such a sense of dignity...even though Serena robbed the whole moment of anything resembling dignified. They should have a perfume named after her..."The Essence of Serena". I wonder what that would smell like.

The real shame is that the whole conversation should be about performance. The same with the Nadal fiasco. The winners have become obscured because the two bullies had their way. Interesting that these two are deified by so many when the reality is what it is. Deep down they are nothing but human beings...deeply flawed. Sports personalities make such flawed role models. I have always had a problem with people speaking of athletes as role models. This is a job better off left to parents.

By the way Serena will someday have to explain this to her kid. That will be her business too. You would think that as a new parent that she might just have some serenity about her. The situation could have been handled better. To say the least.

Osaka has now beaten Williams twice in two tries. It was a great, great win for her on a huge stage and I hope that she has many more great moments ahead of her. Her play on the court was very impressive and her behaviour in the most difficult of situations was rather stately. She managed to exhibit a trait that her opponent might someday try to ponder a bit. The trait is called class. Class is exemplified often by dignifying an otherwise an undignified situation.

[bottle]

Serena simply showed us once again the essence of who she is. Her behavior was unacceptable. I was very disappointed but not surprised at the tv commentators take on the proceedings. They were just pitiful.

Great take by the TV commentators on the proceedings. They were just wonderful. As for the other guy, I was just hoping he would lay off this one, realizing at last that he is unqualified to deal with this subject.

[bottle]

Her coach admitted to coaching after the match.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Another reason Patrick Mouratoglou is a great coach. (Yes, I can spell it, at least if I look it up again.)

[stotty]

The ceremony was the worst part for me. I can, to an extent, accept what went on during the match in the heat of the moment, but the ceremony was awful, and poor Osaka was left meek and almost looked ashamed to lift the trophy. I though that was terribly sad. The crowd were appalling and showed no respect whatsoever for Osaka and what she had achieved.

Whatever went on during the match and after, Osaka simply outplayed Serena in every department and that's really all that should matter to a true tennis fan.

[stroke]

Oddmakers have Novak at about 70% chance of winning the match.

[gzhpcu]

I really felt sorry for humble, young Osaka. Her big moment was spoiled by Serenas outbursts. Oskaka earned the win. She played a number of devastating matches to reach the final. She is only 20. A breath of fresh air.

I do not dislike Serena. She has also been the target of attacks and had no easy time growing up.

[don_budge]

The ceremony was the worst part for me. I can, to an extent, accept what went on during the match in the heat of the moment, but the ceremony was awful, and poor Osaka was left meek and almost looked ashamed to lift the trophy. I though that was terribly sad. The crowd were appalling and showed no respect whatsoever for Osaka and what she had achieved.

Whatever went on during the match and after, Osaka simply outplayed Serena in every department and that's really all that should matter to a true tennis fan.

Well that is a most "liberal" interpretation of the events that transpired in the women's final. I really have to question how you say that a true tennis fan "should" no be concerned with the hysterical events that transpired during the course of the match. One would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not be concerned with what happened. Nope...this was a major, major meltdown and it could all have been simply avoided. But Serena continues with her persecution complex right to the bitter end of her career.

I don't consider myself a fan of tennis. Much less a true tennis fan. But if I were I don't think that I would like to be told what "should" matter to me or what "shouldn't" matter to me. That is really up to the individual and people tend to have different perspectives about different ideas about things. I know that there is a political movement that seems to believe that everyone must think the same way. If you don't then you run the risk of being called the "N" word. These days the "N" word is Nazi. I'm not buying into that one at all. I reject it altogether.

I consider myself a student of the game. As a student of the game I have done some teaching to a lot of different people. I would never tell my students anything that would even remotely suggest to them that all of them had to feel a certain way about anything. It's a big part of the beauty of the process. Letting people make up their own minds.

In this case we have a player with a history of some rather odd behaviour on the tennis court let alone off of it. It was a great performance by the young lady from Japan and she performed superbly all week long and what is more she undoubtably has dreamed her whole life of sharing a platform with Serena but I am rather certain she never dreamed in a million years that Serena would act so bizarrely in front of a stadium full of conscious, sane and rational people.

So actually the story is about Serena's behaviour. Athletes are aware of the microscope they live under and the demands it places on their personal behaviour. They have sponsors, fans as you say and a lot of people who have misplaced there moral compass when they assign the term "role model" to these flawed specimens of the human race. Flawed they are as the attention that is fawned on them, the money that is lavished on them gives them a false sense of their superiority to the rest of us. The reality of it is that this particular person, Serena Williams, has once again began a campaign to blame others and has introduced "sexism" to the story. As if all that she had to do was quietly accept the fact that her coach had perhaps signaled her and accept the warning. But no she caved in to a self induced fit of self indulgence and hysteria. She smashed a racquet and she proceeded to not accept responsibility of where she was and what it was she was doing.

Here is a moron who will blame everyone else but herself for here bizarre meltdown. Not only this, but she has an infant daughter who is going to look up to this person as a role model someday. There is much here to observe and analyse. If someone wants to turn a blind eye for whatever reason that is their business. But I for one think that it is high time that these prima donnas are called out on there shenanigans. The same might be said for the skunk in the men's draw. Just as Serena robbed her opponent of her moment of glory (Serena being the thief in this case) Nadal robbed Juan Martin his moment too. But none of it means a little bit to either of these true narcissistic children. It's duplicitous world we live in. Rules for one that don't apply to the other. Ironic that it shows that once again that tennis metaphors life in more than one way.

But then again...I hardly consider myself a fan. More of a student. Students have minds that are free to make their own way. Nobody "should" think of this event one way or another. Everyone "should" have the opportunity to weigh in with their own feelings...if they happen to have any.

[stotty]

There is no question in my mind that Serena behaved very badly during the match and that she chose to make herself the centre of attention at the ceremony.

Serena is right when she said others have behaved far worse and been given far less punishment. She was unlucky in a sense to have Ramos. Ramos is my favourite umpire because rules are rules and he doesn't believe in grey areas. If all umpires umpired like Ramos absolutely everyone would know where they stood, the players, the spectators, and, importantly, the commentators, who tend add fuel to the fire and have on this occasion divided opinion against Ramos's decisions.