This is a reply by Rick-kendy Noziere ([email protected]) to an article Sports debate: Serena Williams by Adrian Wong from NJIT Vector’s last week edition.
Without repeating all the information: basically, Serena got penalized for breaking some tennis rules and she did not take the punishments passively. The article did a great job at explaining the situation with only one issue: the simplicity of the author’s reasoning. The article is too one-sided. You need the full perspective. The author stated that she was caught cheating by receiving coaching. Accusing someone of being a cheater is very strong. The truth is Serena Williams did not cheat. Her coach did try to coach her, but she did not know it was coaching. She thought it was thumbs-up. Nevertheless, she got a warning. Like most people, I asked why Serena got punished for something she did not do.
The umpire was simply doing his job. He gave Serena a warning for receiving coaching, not necessarily implying that Serena was cheating. Serena’s mistake is that she takes it personally. Mr. Wong, on the other hand, blatantly stated that Serena was caught cheating. That is not true.
Because of the incident, Naomi was denied her magical moment. I agree that Serena Williams should apologize to Naomi, but is Mr. Wong willing to do the same?