Serena Williams gives kids a clinic on how not to lose

Hi kids. If you watched the U.S. Open Tennis match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka you came away with a good education about how not to behave when you lose to another player. I hope you were taking notes.

Serena Williams is a great woman tennis player but was fined $17,000 for three code violations during Saturday's final match.

First she criticized the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, for a controversial call and labeled him a "thief" for a controversial call. She was fined $10,000 for verbal abuse.

Second fine was for being warned by Ramos for coaching from the bench, and a $3,000 fine for breaking her racket and being a piss-poor sport.

The fines will be extracted from her $1.85 million prize money as runner-up, or second best woman on Sunday's final.

Williams, 36, lost to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4. Osaka became the first female Japanese champion but the complaining by Williams and her overt bad behavior took the glory from the moment, which moved Osaka to tears.

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The first violation came when Ramos ruled that Williams was getting illegal coaching advice from Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach. She shot back at the chair umpire insisting she wasn't receiving coaching and that she would "rather lose" than cheat.

The coach later admitted he coached her, so she cheated.

She received a second violation when she smashed her racket into a heart shape fly swatter due to her frustration and perhaps a symbol of her love for tennis. She lost a point for that violation, which led to her arguing with Ramos again about the first penalty.

"I didn't get coaching," she kept saying. "I don't cheat! I didn't get coaching. How can you say that? You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life!"

The third violation for verbal abuse came when Williams called the umpire a "thief," leading to an automatic game loss.

"You will never, ever, ever be on another court of mine as long as you live. You are a liar. When are you going to give me my apology? You owe me an apology. Say it. Say you're sorry...And you stole a point from me. You're a thief, too!" she yelled at Ramos.

She was visibly upset after the hot exchange and pleaded her case on the court and accused the umpire of sexism, which was backed up later in tweets by Billie Jean King.

"I've seen other men call other umpires several things. I'm here fighting for women's rights and for women's equality and for all kinds of stuff," she said after her loss. "For me to say 'thief,' and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He's never taken a game from a man because they said 'thief.'"

But has any man ever actually said 'thief' to Ramos? We need to go to the video tape that doesn't exist.

And how is playing tennis for tons of money ". . . fighting for women's rights and for women's equality and for all kinds of stuff"? It seems to me playing tennis isn't about rights--she obviously has the right to play tennis.

"For me, it blows my mind," she added. "But I'm going to continue to fight for women."

Huh? It's tennis. Are men who play tennis fighting for men's rights? Maybe I'm missing something.

Billie Jean King tweeted:

"Several things went very wrong during the @usopen Women's Finals today. Coaching on every point should be allowed in tennis. It isn't, and as a result, a player was penalized for the actions of her coach. This should not happen."

I agree--she should get another coach. One who follows the rules. Or if you want to assuage the problem, throw the coach out of the stadium, but the rules go for both players and Osaka didn't get coached while she played.

King continued:

"When a woman is emotional, she's "hysterical" and she's penalized for it. When a man does the same thing, he's "outspoken" & there are no repercussions. Thank you, @serenawilliams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same."

Or maybe she's just a crappy loser. She did cheat, but lied and said she never cheated in her life. It would have been more truthful if she simply said that she never cheated once in her life.

Mouratoglou told ESPN that he was coaching but said that all coaches do it during matches.

But I guess Osaka's coach was lucky enough not to get caught. Sure, that's the ticket.

"I'm honest, I was coaching. I mean, I don't think she looked at me so that's why she didn't even think I was. But I was like 100 percent of the coaches on [sic] 100 percent of the matches."

The rule book states that "communications of any kind, audible or visible, between a player and a coach may be construed as coaching."

"Verbal abuse" is defined as "a statement about an official, opponent, sponsor, spectator or other person that implies dishonesty or is derogatory, insulting or otherwise abusive." A player guilty of verbal abuse is subject to a fine up to $20,000 for each violation.

Serena Williams has hopefully taught young girls on how not to behave in sports and other competition. She is a great female player and a horrible female loser.


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