zimpy27 wrote:GREY 1769 wrote:Another POV and context:
So the umpire needs to be the bigger person than the person getting 1000 times their salary? Nah, seems like James Blake got off easy and his situation shouldn't be the rule, rather he should consider himself lucky to get off light. The entitled nature of James just oozes through those tweets "that's how a good umpire handles it" they take my berating and mean comments with a smile because they know how much more important I am than them.
I honestly think respect should be given to umpires, they take way too much blame for emotional delinquents who don't know how to blame themselves.
Salary has nothing to do with it. If it did, the ref would be stricter with male tennis players who make more. I agree, though, about what the rules
should be - that's the central issue.
Blake isn't the exception, and not with this ump: in 2017, Nadal threatened that ump in the same way Serena did (something along the lines of ensuring that that ump would never ref another of his games) after he was given a time violation, nothing happened; in 2018 at the Aussie Open, Nick Kyrgios screamed at that ump for a foot violation, nothing happened; Joker told the same ump he was crap, received a soft warning, got no official violation; in Wimbledon this year, both Joker and opponent Nishikori whipped their rackets on the court but only Joker got a warning.
EDIT: Andy got a code violation for saying, 'Stupid umpiring' when the ump thought the player referred to him as stupid. Murray thought the ump was injecting himself into the game too much.
This was, from what I've read, the first time this ump has given a game penalty.
There are other examples of players complaining to that same ump over rules broken by opponents that weren't called or of that ump giving A LOT of leeway to players (ie/ Fed upset that Nadal's coach kept on coaching and nothing was done; Nadal going over the serve time limit over and over again, sometimes called, many other not).
Both Johnny Mac (during the US Open Men's final) and Joker (after the final) said that the ump ought to give room for players to show emotions, that he ought not insert himself into the out come of the match.
The point is about consistency in calling the game. That's it. And there's clear precedent of it being called differently than how it was during the women's final. Serena clearly broke the rules. But when they're enforced differently for different matches, that has to be fixed. As it stands, it's bad for the sport.
