Pro Tip for CNN contributor Cari Champion: If you're going to criticize people who "don't really understand tennis," avoid making a glaring mistake of your own about the sport!
Appearing on Monday's CNN This Morning, former ESPN host Champion was discussing the ongoing U.S. Open and commenting on how, in her opinion, women players get treated more harshly when it comes to bad behavior on the court, Champion ripped people who comment on the matter but "don't really understand tennis."
But just moments later, Champion thrice alluded to Naomi Osaka as an "American" tennis player:
You know what I'm excited about? And when you talk about women's tennis, more specifically Americans' women's tennis..we have a new crop of women's tennis of stars, American tennis stars. Coco Gauff by far is one of the best that we have in terms of eyes and people want to watch her. Naomi is making her comeback. I am looking for two huge superstars to take over that court and really give us our new world, our new era of tennis, meaning American tennis that's here to stay with some really dominant figures.
Problem: Osaka renounced her American citizenship six years ago. Explaining the decision, her mother said: "She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture. Quite simply, Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese, so that was our only rationale."
So much for not understanding tennis, Cari!
Making her case that women players are treated more harshly than men, Champion pointed to a large fine that Serena Williams once received for a breach of "etiquette." But Champion didn't mention the circumstances.
At the 2009 U.S. Open, when a lineswoman called an obvious foot fault on her, Serena screamed: "I swear to God I'll f---ing take the ball and shove it down your f---ing throat."
That kind of vulgar threat went a bit beyond an "etiquette" breach!
Note: Speaking of Osaka and Serena, at the 2018 U.S. Open, Williams put a huge damper on Osaka's championship win, her first in a major.
During the final match, Serena repeatedly berated chair umpire Carlos Ramos, calling him a "liar" and a "thief," and demanding that he apologize to her for imposing a number of code violations for her abusive language.
The award ceremony turned into a fiasco, with the crowd loudly booing in protest of the penalties assessed to Williams. Osaka was reduced to tears at what should have been the happiest moment of her tennis life. As one report described it, "Another Serena US Open Blow-up Mars Osaka Win in Final."
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
09/01/25
6:22 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: Okay, we're going to bring in CNN contributor and host of Naked Sports, Carrie Champion. Good morning, Carrie. Thanks for being here.
CARI CHAMPION: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, and I love to talk about the tennis. It's one of my favorites.
CORNISH: Okay, so people are getting into it. They're getting into it about etiquette. The Townsend-Ostopenko was like the biggest kind of attention-getting one. And then, I went and looked it up, and Ostapenko has all kinds of altercations with players at tournaments all over. Am I reading that right?
CARI CHAMPION: You're absolutely correct. You know, it's interesting, because when this actually happened, and I'm watching the match -- I went to the U.S. Open -- I thought to myself, well, isn't this ironic in so many ways? A player known for not having the best etiquette or the best attitude, or yelling at certain umpires uncontrollably, having as you mentioned, crash-outs, is now giving someone lessons or some sort of lecture on how to behave? And unfortunately, it just really felt to me like it was just very high-handed of her to do so.
CORNISH: Yeah.
CHAMPION: And I'm glad that, you know, Taylor stood her ground.
CORNISH: You know, what's interesting: that got a lot of attention, but there are a lot more incidents with the male players, I've noticed, as well. And during the break, I was talking with Stephen [Collinson], and he's like, the last time I paid attention to tennis was McEnroe, who also incurred massive fines, disqualification, right? I think it was in the '90s. Is there something about New York?
CHAMPION: There's definitely something about playing -- for the American players, playing in a Grand Slam at home that it fuels this certain fire., but you mentioned McEnroe. McEnroe made a career. from yelling at people. He has commercials. He made money off of it after he long retired. And I don't know if you remember, Serena was fined, arguably one of the highest fines, multiple times for not having quote-unquote proper etiquette. And what I've learned is that when women compete, and I'm not standing up for anyone, but when they compete at that same level, there's always this tag team of how it should be appropriate. And now that we get to see what these players are saying on these crossovers and these exchanges. Look, I think all is fair if you can call them out. If you want to dish this type of criticism, then I should be able to respond to it. And Taylor gave us a good example. Taylor Townsend gave us a good example of how to respond, but I still feel like the officials at tennis need some sort of level ground. You allow the men to do it, and then the women get this reaction, whether it be from those who don't really understand tennis. And I think they get treated differently. I really, truly do.
CORNISH: One more thing, the match that everyone's talking about for today, Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff. Their last matchup in 2019 ended up like they're comforting each other. It's tearful. But since then, they've both won U.S. Open titles. So what are you looking for in their performance today?
CHAMPION: You know what I'm excited about? And when you talk about women's tennis, more specifically Americans' women's tennis, I started off at the Tennis Channel when it was all about the Williams sisters, and Andy Roddick was saying goodbye to his career as well when I started off in sport. Now we have a new crop of women's tennis of stars, American tennis stars. Coco Gauff by far is one of the best that we have in terms of eyes and people want to watch her. Naomi is making her comeback. I am looking for two huge superstars to take over that court and really give us our new world, our new era of tennis, meaning American tennis that's here to stay with some really dominant figures.