Backstory (TV Series) Serena vs. The Umpire (2019) User Reviews

Of course this became about sex and race

[TheLastDon81 · 3/10 · 26 June 2022]

Come on guys. Does everything need to be about race and gender? This was a very simple incident, a lot of us watched it happen in life. I know that I did. Serena Williams got coaching advice from the stands which is illegal and was penalized. It has nothing to do with her race or her gender. It was about a tennis player breaking code of ethics and receiving a violation. Then proceeded to swear at the umpire multiple times which is another violation. I'm not sure what this has to do with her being a woman but of course with society today that's what they tend to focus on in the documentary. Come on guys you are better than this.

This is about a spoiled athlete that did something wrong and then try to correct that by doing something else that was wrong. Simple as that.

Poor investigative journalism

[mawriz · 6 March 2023]

The presenter boasted about his background as a great investigative journalist but this doc was very one sided. It spent 90% of the time asking "Did Ramos do the right thing?" but spent very little time asking "Did Serena do the right thing?".

Most of the doc was about criticizing the umpire for making the right call, and when people said he made the right call, the goal posts shifted to "Doesn't matter if he's right, he should have let that go". And when people said you cannot let accusations of thief and liar go, the goal posts shifted again to "The umpire had a hidden agenda".

I was very disappointed with the final product after being excited by the presenter's claim that he was a great investigative journalist.

Terrible RANTrum... From a Sporting Icon and Legend.

[wadwhl · 1/10 · 15 July 2023]

It says something about the times we live in when someone makes a documentary based on complete nonsense under the guise of some sort of stand for either..race/gender issues or both.. Her disgraceful behaviour was also backed up by the usual sort of social/generic media drivel driven sycophants who are so desperate to be seen to be standing up for inclusivity and fairness when in reality they're just contributing to a huge mess and doing the exact opposite.. Basically SW had a massive tantrum when she thought she was going to win against another female of mixed race.... It's self explanatory.

If you pay attention to these sort of things... Both players were women.. Both players were not white.. So it's impossible for the Umpire to be bias on these grounds.. Incidents like this that are misrepresented are damaging to fairness... people stop taking it seriously!

Serena Williams had a blip on a fantastic record breaking career, nothing more nothing less..

One sided Take in the Incident

[hello22222 · 1/10 · 13 July 2023]

I was hoping for a neutral and objective take on the story hoping to gain insight in Serena's outburst. But the journalist's conclusion was bizarre. It is about justice according to him.

The chair umpire did nothing wrong. Sure he was strict but not unjust. It is the same way as a police officer letting you go for speeding or not. I would not argue with one if I was driving only 1 km over limit and he/she would fine me. I wouldn't argue that men or white people don't get fines driving 50 km over etc etc. It is better to shut up and take the fine.

Serena could have apologised instead or calmed down and prevented any other controversies. She is more experienced and should have known how to handle a situation like this in a better way even if umpire is wrong which in this case he wasn't. She resorted to name calling and accusing an umpire of being a thief, cheat and a liar.

I blame her coach as well. He was aware of rules and still took a risk knowing Carlos Ramos. He should have been smarter about it and prepared Serena better for communicating with him. The journalist doesn't confront him with the question: why would you risk it in such an important match knowing Ramos? Coach probably thought Ramos would let it slide since Serena is champion.

The loser in the whole situation was Naomi who is also a black woman and Asian. The journalist doesn't bother to mention the injustice to her at all. She kept her head down and played calm and disciplined. He mentions she got a point and game as a gift. Doesn't mention how inappropriate the crowd's behaviour was.

Osaka would have probably won it anyway.