Tennis, like many other sports, is very competitive. Over the years it has grown into one of the top sports to watch over the entire globe. It’s grown in commercial sales as the years pass. I’ve asked Rilwan Shittu, a senior at Whitney Young, his take on tennis’ growth, “ Man, tennis is so fascinating to me, dawg. The way these athletes hit the ball at 100+ miles per hour is insane! Though I love and play soccer, you got to give credit where credit is due.”

He’s right, the game of tennis is a chair-clenching and nail-biting match where you can’t get enough.

Tennis started off with wooden rackets and minimal crowds. Now you can watch players of high skill levels compete for different monetary prizes and global championships.

Which leads us into the present day US Open tournament between the Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T) Serena Williams and her opponent Naomi Osaka. Serena, who recently just gave birth, met her match in the US Open.

Naomi was younger, more agile, quicker, and most of all calm under the immense pressure; this was looking bad for Serena as she lost the first match 6-2. She could make a comeback in the second, but this is where the controversy came into play. The chair umpire gave her a warning because he thought she was conversing with her coach and another one for slamming her racket on the court and breaking it. That isn’t even the most frustrating thing for Serena. She had a game taken away from her because of her comment to the ref calling him a “thief.” Serena lost to Naomi 6-4 in the second match.

Now there was some provocation for this comment because the referee earlier had accused Serena of cheating by conversing with her coach, which she vehemently denied. Serena, though, felt that the ref had some sexist bias against women of color and was the reason why he made that call. I asked Ashley Norman and Kennedy Stewart, a senior and a junior, for their scoop on the call. Ashley ‘20 said, “ It was some type of bias against Serena, I feel like…” Kennedy ‘19 stated as well, “There’s no way you should be that upset over the word ‘thief,’ just no way. The words men athletes use on a day to day basis and don’t get penalized like that is just mind-boggling.” Serena later got fined $17,000 for her comment.

Imagine the emotion felt after that type of call in a championship game. Imagine, you came to prove yourself as one of the greatest women tennis players on the planet, who not only came back of maternity leave, but to make your way to the top as if you had never left, but to be spirit-broken by a call like that, is just not right. The students of Whitney Young felt Serena’s pain and take notice of the discrimination against women of color in this day and age, especially in sports. Women’s salaries are affected, and now their focus and scores of the game are now affected, when will it stop? When will equality and respect for the greatest women tennis player be recognized? When will the outcome of the game be based on skill and not by petty emotions by officials? Most people are in full support of Serena, especially other famous tennis players like Djokovic and Federer, but change needs to happen now for future generation