Greg Rusedski: Serena Williams actually owes Naomi Osaka an apology

Shahida Jacobs
Naomi Osaka crying with Serena Williams

Greg Rusedski says Serena Williams’ sexism claims “are just not justified” and feels the American “owes Naomi Osaka an apology”.

Osaka won her maiden Grand Slam title when she beat the 23-time major winner 6-2, 6-4 in the final at Flushing Meadows on Sunday.

However, the match was overshadowed by some controversial calls from chair umpire Carlos Ramos as he gave Williams code violations for coaching and racket abuse and also docked her a game after she called him a “liar” and “thief”.

During her post-match press conference she claimed she would have been treated differently if she was a man, but Rusedski told Sky Sports News that Ramos followed the code.

“She was going after the umpire from the first game in the second set all the way through to when she was down a break 4-3, so from my point of view he did the right thing and you knew the referee was going to be very strong because of what happened with Nick Kyrgios earlier in the tournament,” he said.

“Umpire Mohamed Lahyani came down from his chair and gave Kyrgios a pep talk, telling him ‘I want you to do well’, ‘don’t tank’ and all the players were upset with that, so there was a strict law put in force for the rest of the tournament where chair umpires were not allowed to talk to players as well as following the code and that’s what Ramos did throughout the match.

“I think all these claims of sexism are just not justified and if I look at it in retrospect I’d say Serena actually owes Naomi Osaka an apology because she was the better player on the day, she would have won the match fair and square without all of the hoopla. I just feel sorry for Naomi Osaka.”

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