Vit,
Serena has always been a nasty, condescending bitch - unlike her sister Venus who actually has class.
There are many instances that illustrate this, but here are a few:
- Her own coach Patrick Mouratoglou relates that in their first practice session together, Serena refused to acknowledge or respond to him,
purposefully disrespecting him, and trying to assert her superiority (in her mind). This went on for > 45 minutes:
In the Netflix documentary series,
‘The Playbook,’ Mouratoglou talked about his direct approach towards Serena Williams and recalled their first practice session at Wimbledon.
“I was waiting for her with the team and then she arrives late. I look at her when she arrives and says, ‘Good Morning’. She doesn’t look at me, she passes, doesn’t answer. We start practice, I tell her something, she doesn’t answer, doesn’t look at me. And I feel, this is not gonna work like this. I can’t let her disrespect me.
“After 45 minutes she sits down to drink, I wanted to have her attention, she doesn’t give me attention. So I come to her and slap her on the cap. I said, ‘listen Serena, there are three rules. Rule No.1, when you come to my court, you look at me and say good morning. Rule No.2, when I talk to you, you listen to me, you look at me and you answer me. And I said – is it clear? You know what she answered, ‘What’s rule no.3?'”
https://www.essentiallysports.com/s...session-with-serena-williams-wta-tennis-news/
- US Open 2018, Serena got caught cheating (her coach even admits this) and she goes into a tirade calling the umpire a liar and a thief, and caused such a commotion that the classy Naomi Osaka was left crying at the trophy ceremony.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/v...thief-as-naomi-osaka-wins-us-open-final-video
- US Open 2009, Serena gets penalized a point on match point when she threatens to kill the Asian line judge - and the lies about it.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/v...thief-as-naomi-osaka-wins-us-open-final-video
She is one of the greatest ever, I'm not sure about the "well-liked and respected" part. Margaret Court, who has the Grand Slam record had some harsh words for Serena this past week:
https://nypost.com/2022/09/05/margaret-court-rips-serena-williams-after-us-open-loss/
Maybe one can chalk it up to immaturity, I hope she matures as a human being and in future years shows more class and respect towards everyone around her. You'd never see someone like Rafa Nadal treat people around him the way Serena treats other people.