It’s a real pity that the only thing people are talking of is the injustice done to Serena Williams. I have great respect for her and she held her poise at the interviews afterwards but Naomi won the finals. She played her ass off and really won. Taking the first set 6-2 off Serena in a slam finals is no joke. Especially when you’re 20 and it’s your first slam finals.

True, the 2nd set could have gone differently, were things different, but Naomi, on her first Grand Slam finals, showed incredible resilience and maturity all through.

Alize Cornet, a lesser known player, was given a code violation for taking off her shirt on court (she was still wearing a sports bra). If there was any instance of blatant sexism at the Opens this year, then this should be in the forefront. Male tennis players regularly take their shirts off on court with no warnings. Yet, few of us are even aware of this little incident.

So what really happened? It’s the US Open women’s finals. It’s Serena Williams vs. a 20-year old Japanese-American player named Naomi Osaka. Naomi, who identifies herself as Japanese is the first from her country to ever reach a Grand Slam finals. Shocking everyone, including her opponent, she takes the first set 6-2. In the second set, the drama begins. First, Serena is given a warning because her coach Patrick Mouratoglou was supposedly coaching her from the stands. Serena insists she was not cheating and there was no coaching going on. But now she is visibly upset. Things get worse when she hits a double fault and breaks her racquet. For this, another violation, she gets a point taken off. A long argument ensues with the umpire Carlos Ramos whom she calls a “thief”. For that, a third violation—an entire game. Now young Osaka is up 4-2 in the second set, having already won the first. She is only two games away from a US Open victory.

There have been countless op-eds and posts on this issue by now. Some feel Serena’s behavior was a disgrace to the black community. Others feel she was standing up for every black citizen. In the media the buzz-word is ‘gender injustice’. It’s only natural though that the African American community and many women would identify with this incident. Because like it or not, when you are a celebrity, you are a spokesperson and a role model.
But that day, at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, it wasn’t about skin color or gender. Serena was just standing up for Serena.

Ewan MacEnna writes, very aptly, in his article that at the post-match conference she was asked if she had any regrets. ”I’m out here fighting for… women’s rights,” she blurted out. The see-through nature of this claim was obvious when she added, “and all kinds of stuff”. Now she cannot let it go.”
“This is an age of -isms,” MacEnna says. “…And that can be both a good and a bad thing. These are powerful and delicate words that ought not to be spat out as idle gossip, for that is to demean and diminish their huge importance. However they also allow for false crusades which is easier than any apology. Williams has dragged them into that realm, and this weekend was the perfect example. Pulled up for breaking the rules, she couldn’t accept she was wrong, and proceeded to hijack a major issue, trivialising it to protect herself. “
When you’re off-court you stand up for all that you believe in. You hold conferences, give speeches, support charities. But when you’re on court you leave everything behind. You’re out there on your own, fighting for yourself. You are not hitting a ball for every woman who has been done wrong. You’re hitting it because you god damm want to win. And it is that desire, somewhere deep, deep in your gut, which prompted her to behave the way she did.
If we’re talking of injustice, think this– would the world still be caught up with this match if it were the other way around? If Naomi got robbed off of a game? Probably not. Probably they’d have talked about it for a day and then forgotten about it. Probably they’d be only writing about Serena’s 24th slam. Probably there’d be eloquent articles about her in all the magazines.
But why dwell in conjectures? We’re forgetting that Naomi played brilliantly and won the match. It wasn’t handed to her. But no one is talking about that. We’re too caught up with gender injustice and all the isms we love to jump out of our couches to rant about. The real injustice is towards Osaka who has been robbed of a victory.