This Reporter That Got Scolded Into Apologizing To Serena Williams Should Find A New Line Of Work

A rule to live by: don't tell Serena Williams she played bad, especially when she definitely didn't. This poor guy. #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/zs5saxmVjl

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 19, 2017

Ooooof. That's embarrassing. I know this comes as a huge surprise, but I actually didn't happen to catch Serena Williams Thursday morning victory over Lucie Sarafova in the second round of the Australian Open. The fact of the matter is that even if I did I probably wouldn't be able to tell you if her performance was subpar considering her own personal standard of excellence and my rudimentary knowledge of high-level tennis. She obviously won so there would be no reason for some random reporter to bring up a perceived abundance of double faults unless it seemed out of the ordinary. Now personally? I don't think I would have been so quick to rain on her parade by implying that she could have played better immediately after she advanced, but I'm also not so sure that an apology is in order after doing nothing more than calling a performance "scrappy".

What I am sure of is that submissively acquiescing to the demands of an athlete you're covering like a 3rd grader that just got scolded for rough housing with a classmate is as emasculating as it gets. I mean, even if this guy immediately regretted his wording he should have just stuck to his guns simply so that Serena Williams wasn't able to assert her dominance over him with a response that was basically a mother telling a child to "ask nicely". Honestly, how is that poor bastard ever going to recover from this? Look at the precedent that has just been set. She could put up an absolute stinker her next time out and this dude would be too afraid to do his job and ask a hard hitting question out of fear that the woman whose thighs could crush skulls would smack his hand and say "Hey! what did I tell you?!". I have seen cheap suits that folded less quickly. Maybe his understanding of what took place on the court was a little twisted, but that's not as detrimental to his occupation as having Serena Williams give his flimsy ass backbone scoliosis.