TELFORD VICE: Chauvinist umpire doesn't excuse Serena's Donald Trump moment
For Williams to then say “let’s not boo anymore” to a crowd she had swept into a disapproving frenzy with her outrageous tantrum smacked of Donald Trump at his worst
EXTRACT
When Rafael Nadal told Ramos he wouldn’t grace his matches again after he was penalised for a time delay during the 2017 French Open, Ramos turned the other cheek.
When Williams said much the same thing, among other nasty things, on Sunday, she had a game taken from her.
It’s also worth considering the difference between Nadal’s and Williams’s comments on their run-ins with Ramos.
Carlos Ramos is a reprehensible chauvinist who seems to believe, and is ready to enforce his views beyond his station, that women must be seen and not heard – not like men are, anyway. Serena Williams is an arrogant, 36-year-old brat who couldn’t stand losing to an opponent she should have beaten, so she found someone else to blame for what was going wrong. There. Now that we’ve established the truth of what happened in the US Open final in New York on Sunday we can get into what really happened. And, no, the truth and what really happened are not the same thing. Not in an age when the truth isn’t what it is but what someone says it is, preferably while they have the eyes and ears – and therefore the hearts and minds – of millions of ready, willing and able believers. So a relative nobody like Ramos, a mere tennis umpire, abusing his limited authority to punish Williams for the kind of behaviour that is routinely tolerated by officials when they are presiding over a match played by ...
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