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So...About Mark Knight’s Racist Serena Williams Cartoon - Essence
If you are not one of us who enjoys the gentlemanly-- and gentle-womanly-- game of tennis you missed a dust-up during the women's final at the U.S. Open that came within an eyelash of becoming another "Thrilla in Manilla" from the days of Mohammed Ali. By tennis standards it was a doozy of a verbal exchange.
In the lead-up to a battle royal between Serena Williams and diminutive chair umpire Carlos Ramos, Serena was getting thoroughly whipped by 20-year-old Naomi Osaka. Serena can usually out-pummel her opponent by a good margin with her first serve, and when that doesn't work she can normally rely on a powerful cross-court forehand that leaves her victims scrambling and whiffing at air. Williams, unfortunately on this day, was confronted with a young Haitian-Japanese player that could out-slug her at the baseline and serve as fast as she could-- with more accuracy.
Serena is a passionate, emotional competitor. Already at wits-ends and running out of tactical ideas how to tame Osaka, a suggestion or a cool idea may have come by way of her coach sitting in the stands. (Pssst, move forward, serve and volley). That is a big no-no. When chair umpire Ramos detected these subtle coaching signals coming from her player's box he lay down the law. Shortly after things really went south for Serena so she employed that tried-and-true method of tennis aggression, breaking her racket. Carlos Ramos would have none of it and gave Serena strike two! Forget Naomi Osaka, Serena concentrated on the only opponent that mattered in her immediate world, that epitome of a male chauvinist son-of-a-bitch sitting higher than mighty in that umpire's chair. She called him (among other things) a liar, demanded an apology and then summoned every U.S. tennis authority she could including a woman holding an old-fashioned walkie-talkie and a guy with big silver hair who looked like a conductor for one of the Big Five U.S. orchestras. It was all for naught. Strike three Serena, do not pass go and pay $17,000.
I'm not defending Serena. She was wrong, as wrong as whoever designed that tennis dress that made her look like a 200-lb. sugar plum fairy. But gosh, breaking rackets is a long tradition in tennis. Male player Grigor Dimitrov who's greatest achievement to date has been as a one-time beau of super-babe Maria Sharapova has made a cottage industry out of breaking rackets.
If you are not one of us who enjoys the gentlemanly-- and gentle-womanly-- game of tennis you missed a dust-up during the women's final at the U.S. Open that came within an eyelash of becoming another "Thrilla in Manilla" from the days of Mohammed Ali. By tennis standards it was a doozy of a verbal exchange.
In the lead-up to a battle royal between Serena Williams and diminutive chair umpire Carlos Ramos, Serena was getting thoroughly whipped by 20-year-old Naomi Osaka. Serena can usually out-pummel her opponent by a good margin with her first serve, and when that doesn't work she can normally rely on a powerful cross-court forehand that leaves her victims scrambling and whiffing at air. Williams, unfortunately on this day, was confronted with a young Haitian-Japanese player that could out-slug her at the baseline and serve as fast as she could-- with more accuracy.
Serena is a passionate, emotional competitor. Already at wits-ends and running out of tactical ideas how to tame Osaka, a suggestion or a cool idea may have come by way of her coach sitting in the stands. (Pssst, move forward, serve and volley). That is a big no-no. When chair umpire Ramos detected these subtle coaching signals coming from her player's box he lay down the law. Shortly after things really went south for Serena so she employed that tried-and-true method of tennis aggression, breaking her racket. Carlos Ramos would have none of it and gave Serena strike two! Forget Naomi Osaka, Serena concentrated on the only opponent that mattered in her immediate world, that epitome of a male chauvinist son-of-a-bitch sitting higher than mighty in that umpire's chair. She called him (among other things) a liar, demanded an apology and then summoned every U.S. tennis authority she could including a woman holding an old-fashioned walkie-talkie and a guy with big silver hair who looked like a conductor for one of the Big Five U.S. orchestras. It was all for naught. Strike three Serena, do not pass go and pay $17,000.
I'm not defending Serena. She was wrong, as wrong as whoever designed that tennis dress that made her look like a 200-lb. sugar plum fairy. But gosh, breaking rackets is a long tradition in tennis. Male player Grigor Dimitrov who's greatest achievement to date has been as a one-time beau of super-babe Maria Sharapova has made a cottage industry out of breaking rackets.
