Dear Reader,

It was a heartbreaking tableau at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was the trophy ceremony after the U.S. Open tennis championship match in early September, 2018. A relatively unknown 20-year-old tennis player named Naomi Osaka had just defeated the legendary Serena Williams. But no one was smiling, neither winner nor loser. Nor anyone in the crowd. Instead emotions ran high because Serena had been penalized a game for taunting a chair umpire, among other things. Fans wanted Serena to win, and fans thought she had been cheated. Perhaps she had been.

But the concluding scene of the trophy ceremony was ugly. The crowd yelled and jeered. The young and shy tennis interloper pulled her visor down, looking like she was trying to will herself invisible, though she could hide neither herself, nor her emotions, nor her tears. When have we seen an athletic champion crowned in victory and cry tears that were not tears of joy, or at least relief?

Shortly after the Open, I interviewed the great sports journalist, Sally Jenkins, on the Stay Tuned podcast. Here is how she described the scene: