Serena Williams is adamant — she did NOT receive coaching during that controversial U.S. Open tennis final that everybody can’t stop talking about.
The tennis superstar sat down with The Sunday Project, an Australian news show, in an interview set to air next weekend — and she’s not backing down from her position, despite her own coach now actually admitting otherwise.
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When asked about it after the controversial incident, Serena’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou admitted he was coaching at the time his player was penalized for receiving coaching — although he argues Serena never saw him do it!
The coach said (below):
“I’m honest, I was coaching. I don’t think she looked at me, so that’s why she didn’t even think I was.”
Wow!
But regardless of that, Williams is clear that she didn’t receive it as coaching — nor did she even understand it, as she told the news show (below):
“He said he made a motion, I don’t understand what he was talking about. We’ve never had signals. I just don’t understand. If you’re a female you should be able to do, even half, of what a guy can do.”
And even her coach argues that what the umpire Carlos Ramos did in the moment to Serena was beyond extreme (below):
“There is the rule and there’s a psychology the chair umpire is supposed to have. He would say he saw you coach, do a movement and give a warning. What he did was so extreme. It’s a shame. There’s a rule, yes. But you don’t screw a Grand Slam final and make it the drama the way it was. It could have easily been avoided if there was psychology. [He] treated her like a cheater. She felt completely humiliated. That’s why she reacted like that. Integrity is the most important thing to her.”
Interesting!
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The interview teaser also suggests that Williams struggled at one point to answer a question posed about the incident, and the clip further promises that Serena is “expected to do something she has never done in front of the camera before.”
Hmmm…
What could that be?!
Whatever it is, it’ll air next Sunday evening on The Sunday Project in Australia… and we’ll have more on this soon after!
[Image via WENN.]
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