On top of illegal coaching, racquet abuse, verbal assault on an official, she should have been called for a time violation, which would have meant default, the umpire showed restraint.. Her rant went on for at least fifteen minutes. She was losing and exhausted and her only hope was to delay play and physically regroup, change the momentum of Osaka and use the crowd to get behind her, which she does all the time.
She was losing and exhausted and her only hope was to delay play and physically regroup, change the momentum of Osaka and use the crowd to get behind her, which she does all the time.
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As one of the announcers for the match said, Naomi was playing Serena AND the crowd. I thought Naomi showed great maturity, self-control, and composure during the entire match as the crowd cheered every Serena point, then booed the ref/USTA/whoever as Serena blew up. Naomi beat the cr@p out of Serena from the get-go .... not the “desired outcome”, but a really sweet win for those of us who are sick half to death of Serena and all the talk of her ‘comeback’, her being a mom, her greatness, Serena Serena Serena ad nauseam. I have a relative who played college tennis, is currently a teaching pro, has been a hitting partner for some names you might recognize on the WTA & also does some tournaments so I really like watching matches, but not the Williams sisters.
You mentioned the momentum of Osaka as one of her goals.
I didn’t see the original coverage but did watch it on YouTube. My first thought was- she was trying to rattle her opponent. Most tennis fans are saying Osaka definitely outplayed her.