Serena Williams has said that she would “probably be in jail” if she had attacked the umpire’s chair in the way that Alexander Zverev did in Mexico last month.
The German, who had just lost a doubles match, berated the umpire and repeatedly smashed his racket against the chair, coming close on several occasions to striking Alessandro Germani.
The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist was kicked out of the Mexican Open and fined $40,000 (£30,482), and the ATP have given Zverev a suspended eight-week ban.
However Williams thinks had it been her behaving in such a manner the punishment would have been far sterner, emphasising her belief that there is a “double standard”.
“There is absolutely a double standard,” the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion said to CNN of the Zverev incident.
“I would probably be in jail if I did that – like, literally, no joke.
“You see that [double standard] when you see other things happening on the court, like, wait – if I had done that? Hmm...
“But it’s OK. At the end of the day I am who I am, and I love who I am.”
The younger Williams sister was placed on a two-year probation and fined $175,000 (£133,542) in 2009 after verbally abusing a line judge who had called her for a foot fault during a US Open semi-final defeat to Kim Clijsters.
She accused chair umpire Carlos Ramos of being “sexist” after the Spaniard awarded a game to her opponent Naomi Osaka during the 2018 final of the tournament in New York, suggesting that a male player would not have been sanctioned for calling Ramos a “thief”.
Williams said: “For me to say ‘thief’, and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief’.”
