The US Open Makes More News For What Happened Off The Court, Not On It
The 2018 US Open may be remembered for what happened outside the baselines and the sidelines than for the play that actually happened inside them. The final results, however, were entirely predictable.
The defining feature of this year’s US Open was the unbelievably oppressive heat and humidity. Many sessions were played under heat rules, allowing for extended breaks after the second set for the women and the third set for the men. Players looked like they had just been caught in a deluge after two or three games. Even Roger Federer, who never looks like he’s sweating at all, was absolutely drenched and expressed the feeling in his upset loss that at some point he just wanted to get the match over with and get off the court. These conditions seem to be exacerbated by the new configuration to support the roof in Arthur Ashe stadium which appears to restrict the flow of air to a minimum.
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic breezed through to the finals, losing only a set in each of his first two matches. The expected quarter-final clash with Roger Federer evaporated as Federer succumbed to the heat, the slowness of the court and conditions, and the relentlessness of journeyman John Millman. In the top half of the draw, Nadal had more trouble than expected starting in the third round with a tighter than expected match against Karen Khachanov and then an epic five-setter against Dominic Thiem in the quarters. He had already put in a lot more time on court than his semi-final opponent del Potro, who had an easier time getting through his quarter of the draw when Dmitrov, Murray, and Wawrinka all lost in the early rounds. All that extra time finally took its toll as Nadal had to default after losing the first two sets with more knee problems. In a largely anticlimactic final, Djokovic took care of del Potro in three sets and walked away with the title.
The women’s draw was only predictable in its unpredictability. The parity in the women’s game was on full display as top seed Simona Halep went out in the first round. By the end of the third round only three of the top ten seeds remaining, the highest being #3 Sloane Stephens, who fell to Anastasija Sevastova in the quarter-finals. That opened up the draw for #17 Serena Williams who dropped only one set on her way to the finals, with Karolina Pliskova being her highest seeded victim at #8. Serena’s opponent in the finals was Naomi Osaka who had an even easier time getting there, playing only two seeded players, the highest of which was #14 Madison Keys. The final ended up in craziness but Osaka was clearly the better player in a match that ended in controversy 6-2, 6-4.
The controversy in the women’s final was simply part of multiple controversies about things that happened outside the lines at this tournament. It all started off when Alize Cornet was given a code violation for changing her shirt on court. Cornet had changed shirts off-court during the heat rule break but realized she had her shirt on backwards when she returned to the court. When Cornet took off her shirt and put it on correctly on court, she was given a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct as the rules require. That, of course, highlighted the inequity that the women can only change shirts off the court while the men were constantly changing shirts on normal changeovers.
This was followed up by an even more bizarre moment in, unsurprisingly, a Nick Kyrgios match. Kyrgios had lost the first set and seemed to be going in the tank, not trying for balls and acting totally uninterested. That prompted the chair umpire in the match to come down off his perch and literally give Kyrgios a pep talk, imploring him to actually try harder and telling Kyrgios he can do better than he was showing. Kyrgios promptly seemed to gain interest and ran off the next three sets to take the match.
Then all the insanity culminated in the women’s final. Osaka dominated in the first set, taking it handily 6-2. Serena started to gain some traction early on in the second set but was given a warning for coaching when Patrick Mouratoglou started making some obvious gestures for Serena to come to net. Mouratoglou openly admitted during the match that he was coaching but felt the warning was unfair because it happens all the time. The warning caused William to rail at the chair umpire that he was accusing her of cheating and owed Williams an apology. Williams, still seething, then went on to lose her serve and smashed her racquet in anger. That is another automatic code violation and resulted in a point penalty. During that changeover Williams continued to berate the official, calling him a “thief”, and resulting in another code violation, her third, which requires a game penalty. That game penalty gave Osaka a 5-3 lead and she served it out to win the match.
The rule regarding women changing shirts is absurd, particularly at the US Open. I thought we had put this issue to bed with Brandy Chastain and the winning penalty kick in 1999 Women’s World Cup. More egregious was the Kyrgios incident where the umpire actually left his chair to essentially coach a player during a changeover. I understand the umpire was merely trying to implore Kyrgios to respect the sport but that is not his job or responsibility.
To my mind, at least, (and I expect to get grief for this view), the incident with Serena was the least controversial but will have the most impact. Yes, coaching goes on all the time but Mouratoglou was being especially open about it and subsequently admitted it. The code violation given merely put Serena on warning that any further violations would result in increasing penalties. Serena is a professional and she knows that. So it should have come as no surprise that smashing her racquet would result in another code violation and a point penalty. And she was certainly aware that the next code violation after that would result in a game penalty. Serena, though, had clearly lost her cool and focus. She continued to berate the umpire and eventually received the game penalty.
It is hard to really blame the umpire for the first two violations. They were clear violations. Sure, you can question the coaching violation as being especially nitpicky, but it cost Serena nothing. The third violation was certainly more questionable. Yes, he could have advised Serena that if she continued to berate him, she would have incurred a third code violation, but I’m not sure that really would have defused the situation and may have inflamed it further. And, yes, Serena did not swear at the umpire. But she was clearly upstaging the umpire and that is trouble for any player in any sport.
And I’m also a little dubious of the double standard based on gender. Many of the examples of men swearing at the umpire were from years ago, before the decision was made to crack down on that kind of behavior. And, yes, it is horrible that the umpire had such an effect on the outcome of the match rather than the players deciding it for themselves on court. But that occasionally happens in every sport. The fact is Serena is a pro and she lost her cool and her focus. As my old hockey coach used to say, you shouldn’t give the referee the opportunity to effect the game.
