Serena Williams may not have won it all at her first U.S. Open since giving birth to her daughter Olympia, but she was still a smashing success. Serena powered her way back up to spot #17 in the rankings, and proved to the world why she deserves to still be on the stage at Wimbledon, and then again at Flushing Meadows.
Getting back to this point has been a struggle for Serena. She withdrew from tournaments she had qualified for out of fear of not really being ready. Also, she constantly has to deal with potentially missing out on major milestones in her daughter’s life. She confessed that she missed her daughter’s first steps while she was at training, and was devastated.
Now sure, Serena is not your typical mom, she’s a ~cool~ mom. We all gush over the Instas she posts with her daughter – how could we not! Despite being faced with the challenges of parenthood, Serena is still kicking butt and changing the way women are viewed after childbirth. The Women’s Tennis Association has had to totally rework their rulings on women returning to the rankings after maternity leave because it is becoming more common for athletes to start families.
Serena breezed her way through the first six rounds of match play at the U.S. Open to find herself in the final against Naomi Osaka. Williams ended the game with a loss, and fines totaling $17,000 for three violations. She has been heavily criticized for getting into a heated dispute with the umpire Carlos Ramos. She was given a violation for receiving coaching at a moment during the game that she was not allowed to. Although she tried to keep her cool, Serena ended up busting her racket and calling the umpire a thief by the end of the game, which is why the two other violations were tacked on.
If Serena had won her match, she would have been triumphant in her return to the U.S. Open and won her 24th singles grand slam title. This would have put her in a tie for the most all-time Grand slam tournament wins in history. Her fight with Ramos totally shifted the momentum of the game for Serena, and her meltdown has been talked about all over the world.
Now, where we think this gets a little unfair is that this super mom was ripped apart by the media for getting angry at the umpire. When male athletes do this, the umpire doesn’t even give it a second thought and sometimes they even get praised for this behavior. Conversations have been brewing about sexism in professional sports, as well as racism – both of which Williams has dealt with during her time as a professional athlete.
Regardless of the controversy that she found herself in, Serena deserves all the recognition in the world for her comeback. We applaud her for kicking major butt and showing the world how tough moms are. They stick up for themselves and you most certainly cannot count them out.