Serena Williams Ends 2018 Season, WTA Players Still Divided Over Sexism Claims

The controversial 2018 US Open women’s singles final will be Serena Williams’ last match for the 2018 season after the American withdrew from the mandatory premier event in Beijing next month.

The 23-time women’s singles Grand Slam champion pulled out from the China Open that gets underway Oct. 1 bringing an end to her 2018 campaign — that saw her make a return after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian and also miss out on two chances to make it 24 majors and equal Margaret Court’s all-time record.

Williams played just two events in 2017 with the Australian Open being her last tournament before she announced her pregnancy. She gave birth to her daughter in September last year before returning to action at the Indian Wells tournament in March 2018.

The American made the quarterfinals at Roland Garros but had to pull out of her match against Maria Sharapova due to injury. She then shocked everybody making the final at Wimbledon — in just her fourth tournament since returning to action — but Angelique Kerber proved too strong an opponent to overcome.

Williams then had a poor start to the hard court season suffering early exits in San Jose and Cincinnati, but she was back to her best after powering to the final of the 2018 US Open. The 37-year-old came up against 20-year-old Naomi Osaka and that clash on Arthur Ashe Stadium would go on to become the spoken about match in recent memory — not because of the performance on the court but the falling out between Williams and chair umpire Carlos Ramos.

Osaka went on to deservedly win the match comfortably in straight sets and become the first Japanese player to win a singles Grand Slam, but the major talking point was Williams’ meltdown after she was docked a game after being penalized three times. She went on to make claims of sexism and her behavior while condoned by many, has its fair share of critics.

Williams will now end the season without getting on court again having played just 24 matches in 2018. The controversial final is going to be a talking point for a long time — and her actions continues to divide the WTA with world number one Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova defending referee Ramos, while world number two Caroline Wozniacki defending her friend over her comments.

"The rules are the rules," Halep told CNN during a recent interview. "I don't see any difference between the men's rules and women's rules, and I think the chair umpires are doing just their jobs."

"I never had any problems with him, or with any umpire. I also got fines, when I had to. It's normal,” the Romanian added talking about chair umpire Ramos.

"I don't see the difference, to be honest," Kvitova added. "Sometimes, when you get the violation, it is just a violation, and it is nothing, at the end of the day. I got so many violations when I was a kid, I got a coaching violation as well, but it's OK. ... You get it, and you can't do anything with it, and sometimes it's tough, but you can't get interrupted by that."

Wozniacki, however, believes the match official should have taken a different route rather than immediately giving Williams a code violation when it became clear to his that her coach was giving her tactical advise from the box, which is not allowed. The Dane feels that the American should have been given a “soft warning.”

"If someone knows Serena, if someone has followed her career, she never gets coaching, and she never asks for the coach on court," Wozniacki said. "I think as a great umpire — you obviously have to be a good umpire to be in the finals — you should also be aware that this is the situation. You should be aware that Serena is not one of those people that really looks up to the box or communicates with the box.”

"In my opinion I think that in the situation he probably should have given her a soft warning, and if he felt this is the way it was, said that your team is making signs, you need to make them stop. That's, in my opinion, the way that the umpires usually do it,” she added.