Serena Williams threatens a boycott of her matches through the referees. This was reported by the English newspaper The Times, citing a colleague of final referee Carlos Ramos.
Who would have thought it? In addition to the great winners Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic, two referees will probably remain in the collective memory of tennis fans at the 2018 US Open. Above all, the treatment of Mohamed Lahyani and Carlos Ramos by the organizer, the American association USTA.
The way in which Ramos was treated in the women’s final is particularly annoying for the Portuguese colleague. “The Times quotes an anonymous colleague of Ramos as saying, “He was accused of being eaten by wolves and insulted.
The result could be a boycott of Serena Williams’ matches. A discussed proposal is to reject her matches until she apologizes to Carlos Ramos for having called him a “liar” and “thief”.
Williams had received support from both the USTA and the WTA for their accusation that Ramos had issued at least the third warning for sexist reasons, which led to a game withdrawal.
The 23-time major winner was fined a total of 17,000 US dollars for her behavior.
After his pep-talk for Nick Kyrgios, Lahyani was also ignored by the USTA. Although it was said after a thorough check that the Swede would not be punished and would continue to lead matches, Lahyani was not seen on the larger places until the end of the tournament.