The chair umpire that Serena Williams called a thief in Saturday’s United States Open women’s final has long been one of the on-court officials willing to enforce the rules without fear or favor on the game’s biggest stars, male and female.
The umpire, Carlos Ramos, a 47-year-old from Portugal, was the focus of Williams’s ire during her 6-2, 6-4 loss to Naomi Osaka. Ramos gave Williams three code-of-conduct violations — for illegal coaching, racket abuse (she threw it down in anger or frustration) and verbally abusing a judge, the last of which resulted in Osaka being awarded a game in the second set.