It’s been 20 years since Serena Williams’ infamous US Open loss due to wrong umpire calls, but the issue still angers her husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
However, Ohanian did not watch the game live and saw it almost 10 years later. During his appearance at the HOT 97 show, Ohanian recalled that he saw Williams’ 2004 US Open quarterfinal match versus American Jennifer Capriati back in 2014.
His reaction was furious when he saw umpire Mariana Alves continually rob Williams of points by calling her ‘ins’ as ‘outs’ and her opponent’s ‘outs’ as ‘ins’.
“It was before hawk eye and the the line judges were just literally calling balls in that should have been out and out that should have been in and and I’m watching this getting outraged years later. To see the BS that she went through that was just objectively wrong,” said Ohanian.
The reason behind the Reddit co-founder getting involved with tennis is because of its ‘purity.’ He said that it was different from football, where there are complications in describing various concepts, such as ‘what a catch is?’ And for tennis to remain pure, Ohanian feels the umpire must make ‘honest’ calls.
“The crazy thing is like this sport of tennis and the reason I’ve come to love it is actually one of the purest sports as long as you’re calling it honestly the ball is in or out right,” he said.
Even after 20 years, Serena’s loss in that US Open game under dubious circumstances is still talked about.
The infamous 2004 US Open clash between Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati
It wasn’t an easy game for Serena as the umpire got four calls wrong her, and each of them came at a crucial point in the match.
It also involved Alves not calling what was Capriati’s double fault that could have given Serena a break point in the 10th game of the last set. If Williams had secured the break-point, the set would have been tied at 5-5, giving her a fighting chance to win the match. However, Capriati rode her luck to win the match and secure her entry into the semifinals.
After the match ended, the TV replays made it evident that the umpire had indeed made many mistakes that cost Williams dearly. Not letting Alves off the hook, the organizers restricted her from umpiring any more matches in the tournament.
