Williams triggered a global firestorm earlier this month after claiming official Carlos Ramos penalised her because she was a woman.
The tennis star was cited for three code violations including being coached, breaking her racket and calling the umpire a thief. The second two violations cost her a point and a game.
At a press conference after the match Williams said:
“For me to say ‘thief’, and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief’.”
Federer said umpiring styles varied from umpire to umpire, suggesting it was something that should examined.
“It’s interesting but I think it’s important to look at it,” Federer told KVUE. “Every umpire has their own style, it’s just how it is in any sport.”
“In tennis you might have an umpire that gives more coaching violations and another guy goes more to time violation.
“You might get one guy who knows that this guy misbehaves quite often so I’ll give him a warning quicker or I’ll be more lenient with a guy because he’s a nice guy and just can’t control himself. I think it really depends on the situation.”
Federer shrugged off Williams’ claim Ramos’ decision was due to sexism but acknowledged that there had been mistakes made.
“I hope it’s not the case, but I think what happened, obviously there were mistakes along the way and there should be more discretion sometimes.”
“At the same time, they have to do their job, that’s what we want them to do.”
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