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Poor sportsmanship is not a gender issue

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14th September, 2018
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There’s been a lot said over the last few days about the latest Serena Williams saga… and let’s face it, it is the latest of many.

Now some people are claiming it’s a clear case of sexism. While others, myself included, look on it as nothing more than a case of poor sportsmanship.

So let’s consider cause and effect. Do I think Serena has had to struggle to get where she is? Most definitely. And it’s been a two-fold fight for her – gender and race. But other women have also had to struggle in tennis.

You can’t tell me it was easy for Martina Navratilova. But do I think that struggle should excuse poor behaviour? No. To me, being a professional means acting professionally. I don’t doubt there is frustration involved in playing tennis and having calls go against you. But this happens in all sports.

All sports have the human factor involved when it comes to officiating – and people do make mistakes. But that shouldn’t be a gateway to tantrums and threats.

Serena and her coach were cheating. However, Carlos Ramos wasn’t accusing Williams of cheating, it was Mouratoglou that was being accused, and there’s photographic evidence showing him giving hand signals suggesting “Williams move forward, presumably to rush the net” which supports the accusation.

In addition, he admitted it, albeit in a curious fashion: “I was coaching, but I don’t think [Serena] looked at me. [Osaka’s] coach was coaching the whole time, too. Everyone is doing it, 100 percent of the time.”

I find it highly unlikely that he sits court-side giving hand signals to a person who doesn’t look. And the excuse that everybody does it belongs on a school playground, not in professional sports.

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Also, how exactly did he know Osaka’s coach was “coaching the whole time”? Did he spend the entire match watching him?

Regardless, according to the 2018 Official Grand Slam Rule Book, “Communications of any kind, audible or visible, between a player and a coach may be construed as coaching” (2), and coaching during a game is cheating: “Players shall not receive coaching during a match (including the warm-up)”.

Serena Williams loses the plot in staggering US Open Final tirade

Serena Williams loses the plot in staggering US Open Final tirade

Is it tough that she got a penalty for it when so many don’t? Yes. However, she’s not the only person to ever receive a code violation for coaching. In fact, in the three Grand Slams before the US Open (the French Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open), of the 31 code violations given, “11 of them were for coaching — more than any other code violation”.

So this is hardly a one-off occurrence, however, I can understand the feeling of it being unfair. Was it unfair that Sonny Bill Williams got red-carded in the second British and Irish Lions Test when Mako Vunipola didn’t? Yes. But that’s sport, and unfortunately inconsistency in the application of laws does happen.

Did the All Blacks throw a tantrum? No, they got on with the game. Did coach Steve Hansen call the ref a cheat or thief in the post-match media conference? No. He called for more consistency.

As far as the coaching law goes, I think this incident has shown that the governing body needs to either adjust the law and make it easier for officials to police, forget about it altogether, or maybe just ban coaches from sitting court-side.

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The next two violations, smashing her racquet and disrespecting the match official, are also against the laws of tennis and obviously much easier to police.

The 2018 Grand Slam Rule Book states, “Players shall not violently or with anger hit, kick or throw a racquet or other equipment within the precincts of the tournament site” and “Players shall not at any time directly or indirectly verbally abuse any official, opponent, sponsor, spectator or other person within the precincts of the tournament site”.

In addition, it states, “Players shall at all times conduct themselves in a sportsmanlike manner and give due regard to the authority of officials and the rights of opponents, spectators and others.”

Now despite what many people think, male tennis players do receive penalties for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Men also receive fines, disqualification and bans.

In fact if you look at the numbers of players who have been disqualified and banned, you could argue that men are actually more severely treated. But I’ve never heard anyone claiming it’s a gender issue when that happens.

As far as Ramos’ history goes, he issued a code violation to Andy Murray at the 2016 Olympics for verbal abuse, one to Rafael Nadal at the 2017 French Open for taking too much time, and one to Novak Djokovic for unsportsmanlike behaviour this year at Wimbledon.

Novak Djokovic Wimbledon Tennis 2016

Novak Djokovic. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

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At the previous three Grand Slams, “men were assessed 59 code violations, almost twice as many as the women”.

Of the code violations issued to men, nine were issued “for coaching” and 19 for “abuse of racket/equipment”. So how this is a gender issue?

What was the excuse at the 2009 US Open? She was playing Kim Clijsters, a new mother at the time, in the semi-final, and said the following to the lineswoman: “I swear to God, I’m f—— going to take this f—— ball and shove it down your f—— throat, you hear that? I swear to God”.

Or what about at the 2011 US Open final against Sam Stosur when she called the female umpire, Eva Asderaki, “a hater” and “very unattractive inside”? Where was the fight for women then?

The common denominator in all three matches was that Williams was on the way to defeat. When she’s losing, she loses it… and that’s poor sportsmanship.

Now to determine whether Carlos Ramos is sexist would take more than one match. All the matches he has presided over would need to be reviewed and all penalties rated against gender. However, there seems to be a lot of non-tennis people happily judging the man based on this one match. I find it ironic that some people have no qualms about branding Romas as sexist while debating gender equality.

Serena Williams Tennis Wimbledon 2016

Serena Williams could achieve something special at Wimbledon 2018 (The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images )

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I will admit that I do not like poor sportsmanship. I don’t think it’s professional to act unprofessionally. Professional sportsmen and women are well-paid role models.

The acceptance of a big pay packet comes with responsibility. Yeah, it must be a very difficult life. But so is being a single mum or dad raising three kids on the benefit. It’s all relative.

Do we really want to see children smashing racquets, threatening linesmen and women and calling officials names because they see their role models doing it? Because if it’s allowed at the junior level, imagine the top level of the sport in years to come. It will no longer be about tennis but about who’s the biggest bully.

One of the things I respect about the All Blacks is that nobody is bigger than the jersey. Back-to-back World Rugby Player of the Year, Beauden Barrett, is a team player.

He doesn’t spit the dummy if he’s on the bench or rested. He doesn’t pull a sad if a player bypasses him and scores a try himself.

He doesn’t throw a tantrum if he misses a penalty or the team loses. I get tennis is an individual sport vs a team sport, but the point is, nobody is above the laws. And by excusing poor sportsmanship because of struggle or anything else, is placing that player outside the rules that govern everybody else.

That’s not right.

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It’s a hard road for women who compete in a man’s world – but this is not exclusive to sport alone. I don’t think it’s right to claim you’re fighting the fight for women, while using gender as a smoke screen to distract from your behaviour.

Yes, there is inequality in tennis, as there is in all sports played by both men and women and I’ve argued this point with regard to rugby. But breaking the laws of the sport is not gender related.

Being penalised for it might be, but a full on study would have to be conducted to provide the evidence to prove that. And to my knowledge, no such study has been conducted. So yes, bemoan the inequality of pay, but using the gender card every time something doesn’t go your way is detrimental to the larger fight.

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