{"id":42591,"date":"2018-09-09T14:49:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T14:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=42591"},"modified":"2022-12-12T02:51:42","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T02:51:42","slug":"the-final-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.ireneeng.com\/?p=42591","title":{"rendered":"The final"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Serena suffered another injustice. Why doesn’t it happen again, and again, at her home grand slam US Open?<\/p>\n

The 2018 US Open<\/a>\u00a0women’s final was decided by the chair umpire. We pay to watch the players fighting it out, NOT by referees or umpires<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Aleksandar (Sascha) Bajin (career high @ 1,149, a Serbian-born German<\/a>) was Serena’s hitting partner for 8 years that ended in 2015<\/a> (reason unknown). Before taking up with Naomi Osaka<\/a>, he had worked with Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki, briefly.<\/p>\n

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Not condoning any abusive behaviors but tennis umpires seem to have thin skin. Being called a “thieve” is not, in my dictionary, abusive. They just sit in a tall chair, without doing much – IF there is a line dispute, the technology will decide. SO, what’s left for them to do, other than sit there, high atop? The referees @ NHL have to skate; @ NBA have to run; @ MLB have to move around … Only the tennis umpires, sitting pretty.<\/p>\n

Funny, in the same tourney, a female player was issued a code violation<\/a> because she took off her shirt – don’t men do that all the time?! And Umpire Mohamed Lahyani<\/a> went ‘beyond protocol’, got down from his chair and talked to Nick Kyrgios (who behaved badly then after the talk, went on to win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert.).<\/p>\n

Some coverage of the women’s final:<\/p>\n