Serena Williams accuses US Open final umpire of sexism after ‘thief’ meltdown on court

Williams branded Ramos a thief during the final at Flushing Meadows in an incredible meltdown in the second set as she lost 6-2 6-4 to Naomi Osaka.

Williams refused to shake hands with Ramos following the match having been given a game penalty for her outburst.

It came after Williams was accused of being coached from the sidelines.

She received a code violation and then smashed her racquet before having the game taken off her for the thief comment.

When asked if she would change anything from incident, Williams went on another rant, claiming men would not be treated how she was.

“I don’t know,” she said. “You definitely can’t go back in time. I can’t sit here and say I wouldn’t say he’s a thief, because I thought he took a game from me.

“But I’ve seen other men call other umpires several things. I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality and for all kinds of stuff.

“For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief’.

“For me it blows my mind. But I’m going to continue to fight for women and to fight for us to have equal — like Cornet should be able to take off her shirt without getting a fine. This is outrageous.

“I just feel like the fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person that has emotions, and that want to express themselves, and want to be a strong woman.

“They’re going to be allowed to do that because of today. Maybe it didn’t work out for me, but it’s going to work out for the next person.”

It comes after confirmation that all three umpire decisions were in fact correct.

This was put to Williams and she was asked why she thought the umpire was a thief.

“Because he took a point from me,” she said.

“He alleged that I was cheating, and I wasn’t cheating. Then I had a good conversation with him. I said, Listen, you know my character. You know me really well. Like you know that I don’t even call for on-court coach. I don’t even do that.

“He’s like, You know what? I understand. I don’t know if he said, You’re right. But he understood. He’s, like, Yeah, I get what you’re saying.

“Then when I sat down, I said it again. I was, like, Just to be clear, I can understand what you saw because it may have looked — just because I look at my box, it may have looked like I was getting coaching, but I’m telling you, that’s not what I do. I said, I’d rather lose than have to cheat to win. I don’t need to cheat to win. I’ve won enough. That’s never been something I’ve ever done, you know.

“And he was cool. He was like, Oh, I get it. We had this great exchange. We were on the same page. We understood each other, and I felt that that was — yeah.”

However her coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted he had been issuing instructions from the sidelines.

“I was coaching but I don’t think she looked at me,” Mouratoglou said. “Sash [Osaka’s coach Sascha Bajin] was coaching as well. Everybody does it.”

The match finished under a cloud with boos and whistles ringing out as Osaka collected the trophy.

It was her first Grand Slam success and she admitted afterwards that she still admired Williams, despite the way the match turned out.

She said: “The thing is, like, I don’t know what happened on the court. So for me, I’m always going to remember the Serena that I love. It doesn’t change anything for me. She was really nice to me, like, at the net and on the podium. I don’t really see what would change.

“The crowd was really noisy, so I really didn’t hear. Like, I really didn’t hear anything that was going on.

“And when I turned around, uhm, it was 5-3, so I was a little bit confused then. But for me, I felt like I really had to focus during this match because she’s such a great champion, and I know that she can come back from any point.

“I was just trying to focus on myself at that time.”