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In an interview to the New York Times, USTA chief executive Stacey Allaster said that the umpire Carlos Ramos will not serve in Serena Williams or her sister Venus's matches at the upcoming US Open, after last year's controversial final between the 23-time Grand Slam winner and Naomi Osaka.
“We don’t need to go there," said Allaster. "There are more than 900 matches here over the three weeks, and there are lots of matches for Carlos to do. We want to be focused on the competition and want to go forward.
This is just for 2019. Let’s just not put everyone in that spotlight. It’s not necessary”. Meanwhile, Osaka spoke about her knee injury in Cincinnati: "We literally we don't know what was going on. They were trying to figure it out.
So I was asking her if it was safe to play because I really hate withdrawing. Like, I don't know. I feel like we were playing such a great match, too. It's not fair to her to just, like, withdraw, because I feel like I'm bowing out.
Then I was asking her, like, if she thinks it's safe to play. Then I went out there. I wanted to finish the set. But I felt this like it wasn't safe." On her relationship with opponent Sofia Kenin, Osaka added: "We actually grew up in the same place.
I used to see her at every, like, junior tournament that I would play. Yeah, we played each other when we were really little. She would always win. And then, like, I saw her when we were coming up in Itf. So for me, it's really cool, because, like, we would both play at the same academy or see each other once every few years, and now we are both here, both professionals, and I think that's, like, a really cool coming-up story."