Opinion: Women's rights and Serena Williams, it just doesn't fit

"You are a hater, and you're just unattractive inside," Serena Williams to chair umpire Eva Asderaki in 2011.

"I've never been in a fight in my whole life, so I don't know why she would have felt threatened," Williams online judge Shino Tsurubuchi in 2009.

Serena Williams' latest run-in against the umpireis nothing new, she has been at it for the last 10 years. However, in her latest rant against the umpires, the former US Open champion brought up the touchy topic of women's right, was it the right forum to bring up the issue? And what about the circumstances, Serena was already staring at defeat against eventual champion Naomi Osaka when she let out a volley of expletives against the chair umpire.

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The Portuguesechair umpire Carlos Ramos gave Serena a "coaching violation warning" after television cameras showed coach Mouratoglou make hand gestures. Serena told the umpire she was "no cheat" and that she would rather lose than cheat.

This time, however, Serena went a step ahead and accused umpire Carlos Ramos of being a "thief", for which she was docked a game. Serena's "because I am a woman" has won her several fans on social media. In fact, WTA Tour chief executive Steve Simon backed Serena Williams's claim that sexism played a role in the code violations at the US Open final.

Williams was given three code violations and went down to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka tamely in straight sets.

Did Serena suddenly remember "sexism" and "women's rights" when she was down and out? her histrionics earlier suggest she has comfortably raked up issues when she was losing a match.

Make no mistake, Serena's outburst do not compare with John McEnroe, the ultimate bad boy of tennis who terrorised umpires the world over in the 80s. McEnroe's tirade against chair umpires was more of a "rebel thing", and amazingly he would win those matches in the end and for the spectators it was their "money's worth", there is, after all, nothing like a good confrontation.

With Serena however it is more of alien territory, in the era of #MeToo, every umpire and person in authority has to watch his step. It will be a real pity if male umpires in the future have to watch their step just to make a line call or call somebody's bluff during a crunch point.

In 2009, the USTA had threatened to suspend Serena after her verbal assault on line judge Trsurubuchi, the American was fined $82,500 for her offensive statements. This time though with Serena making it a men vs women issue, the tennis world is being forced to take sides.

"Yesterday also brought to the forefront the question of whether different standards are applied to men and women in the officiating of matches," WTA Simon said in a statement. "The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs. women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same."

This takes the whole men vs women debate to another level. Nobody, of course, has bothered to check with umpire Ramos about what he thought about the whole issue.

Watch this space for more...

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)