Tennis news - Serena-slamming: Another week of tennis, another week of dodgy rhetoric

Despite not having played competitively since the US Open in September last year, Serena Williams looks as good as ever, having yet to drop a set in the tournament as she prepares to face World No.1 Simona Halep in the fourth round.

But predictable as Williams’ good form, so too has been the rhetoric.

Before Williams had even hit her first serve in the tournament, media outlets wanted to know: 'will the public forget Serena’s outburst in the US Open final?'

Well, if you have to ask, I’m guessing the answer is…You don’t want us to?

Of course, the outburst in question was that against umpire Carlos Ramos who she deemed to have treated her unfairly for administering a code violation for receiving coaching, deducting a point for racket abuse, followed by a game penalty after she reacted to that. Williams sparked debate by later lambasting his actions as “sexist.”

While it’s fair to say the outburst, in which she called the umpire a “liar” and a “thief” did not show Williams in the best possible light, it’s hard to argue that male players are not treated with more lenience when it comes to demonstrating a bad attitude on court. And yes, outraged radio caller of Tunbridge Wells, I agree, it shouldn’t be a race to the bottom, but we’re talking about sexism – you know, when men and women are treated differently.

And while we’re on the subject of sexism, let’s move on to her first round match in this tournament, and the big reveal of her kit. A bit too revealing for some, with articles referring to the bright green 'Serena-tard' as “figure hugging,” as if the author had never before seen women’s sportswear.

Meanwhile, as ever, social media had a thing or two to say about it.

“Add that to her unsportsmanlike behaviour,” said one, inexplicably.

“She talks about #sexism and is wearing an outfit you only see in bars with red lights…Disgusting,” said another (sexist) Twitter-user.

And let’s not even start on the body-shaming, to which she must now also be accustomed.

When asked about sexism prior to the tournament, Williams was keen to move on from the US Open, stating: “I…literally have no comment,” only to be criticised (by a man) for not using the opportunity to make a public statement about sexism in the game, it clearly being her responsibility to speak out against sexism, rather than of others not to be sexist.

No wonder Williams is angry; she must be exhausted from second-guessing what her reaction to any given issue is supposed to be.

Then of course, if we’re talking about “anger”, there’s the racism. Sometimes obvious – for example the Herald Sun’s cartoon following the US Open incident, in which Williams was portrayed in caricature of racist, colonial tropes that would have made Rudyard Kipling blush, and her opponent, Naomi Osaka, whitewashed.

Sometimes it’s more subtle and unwitting – for example in the interview after her third round victory against Dayana Yastremska, an eighteen-year-old who was “very intimidated” by Williams, apparently. Didn’t she notice how intimidated Yastremska was?

Of course Yastremska should have been intimidated – she was up against a woman who has won 23 grand slam titles and is just one shy of levelling with Margaret Court’s record. But the reporting tells us otherwise, and there is often an undertone to this sort of question, continuing to focus on "issues” like her physique rather than her exceptional results.

It is her results that are all too often overlooked, with one headline posing the question on Friday: "Can Serena Williams seal her place in the tennis history books once and for all?”, effectively dismissing her already considerable achievements, as so many have done before.

It goes without saying that the focus on Williams is all wrong, and always has been, but beyond that, it’s tedious – the perpetual cycle of someone-says-something-inappropriate-someone-pens-op-ed-piece-no-one-talks-about-tennis. Because after all, that is why we’re all here, isn’t it?