Who Cares About Women’s Tennis Now?
Serena Williams’s disgraceful display reminds us of another entitled and angry woman.
We’re not much for professional tennis in our humble shop, but we couldn’t help but notice something about the weekend’s U.S. Open women’s championship match. Stop us if you’ve heard this before: A woman who thought she was entitled to win was credibly accused of cheating during the contest, which she then turned into a tirade about her own supposed victimhood at the hands of those who are allegedly sexist. Her supporters then turned into a rabid mob, heckling and booing the victor, who not only deserved to win but did so fair and square. The media rallied to her defense, robbing the victor of the moment of triumph.
But enough about the 2016 election.
We’ll leave debating the rules of tennis to others, but suffice it to say that Serena Williams, in the words of Rich Lowry, “behaved shamefully” and showed an “appalling lack of grace.” Her coach admitted to the infraction that led to a penalty, but Williams turned the match into a pathetic spectacle of rage, complete with smashing her racket (again) and leaving the 20-year-old, first-time winner, Naomi Osaka, not only in tears on the podium but literally apologizing for her win.
After Williams’s reprehensible behavior on the court (for which she was fined $17,000), she parlayed her “victim” status into a fight for social justice. “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality and for all kinds of stuff.” And the Leftmedia jumped to her defense, adding that things are even worse for black women, just to throw race in the mix. It’s evidently fine to discriminate against Asian women, however. Osaka, the victor overshadowed in this fiasco, is Haitian-Japanese.
A final thought. Williams is insisting she’s an aggrieved victim despite having brought great notoriety to women’s tennis with her dozens of titles, being worth about $180 million, and having her very own clothing collection at none other than Nike. For some reason that reminds us of another pouting athlete… Wanna profit from being an offensive jerk? Just do it.
Update: Apparently, Williams’s behavior was so bad — including a terrible history of abusing female refs (take note, feminists) — that many umpires are considering boycotting her matches.