Ramos issued Williams a game penalty for her behaviour during her straight-sets loss to Japan's Naomi Osaka on Sunday (NZT), after Williams called him a "thief". "For me to say "thief" and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark", Williams said after the final.
"I felt like he blew it", said King. For me it blows my mind. "There's no equality when it comes to what the men are doing to the chair umpires and what the women are doing, and I think there has to be some consistency across the board".
The ITF had previously said nothing on the incident other than to state it does not control the Grand Slams, until Monday when it released a statement supporting Ramos.
Ings said that while refs are upset and legitimately concerned about favoritism toward Williams and against them, an actual boycott isn't likely because of the lack of an umpire union and the relatively small number of top-level officials, of which Ramos is considered one. During the US Open final, Serena was given three code violations by Carlos Ramos - the first for receiving coaching, the second for racquet abuse and the third for verbal abuse of the umpire.
The ITF added that "Ramos undertook his duties as an official according to the relevant rule book and acted at all times with professionalism and integrity".
Ranked in the Top-100 of WTA Doubles, she spoke about emotions coming into play. "We do not believe that this was done", said WTA chief executive Steve Simon said.
Ramos is an umpire with a reputation for standing up to star players, which is partly why he has been asked to take charge of singles finals at all of the Grand Slams, as well as the Olympic Games.
The fallout has been ugly since the final, with talk of some umpires refusing to officiate Williams' matches.
"W$3 e can not measure ourselves by what we think we should also be able to get away with", she said, adding, "There have been many times when I was playing that I wanted to break my racket into a thousand pieces".
"The WTA supports coaching through its on-court coaching rule, but further review is needed".
Tennis great Billie Jean King backed the American but Margaret Court, whose major wins record Williams was trying to equal on Saturday, expressed little sympathy for the 36-year-old.
Australian Richard Ings, the former top worldwide umpire and head of rules for the ATP, backed Ramos to the hilt and told the BBC how he felt.
"He handled that match absolutely perfectly", he said. "They've been called a lot more".
He said there had been "a tradition" in many Australian cartoons to exaggerate physical characteristics of minority groups, including indigenous Australians, to "trigger a reaction" - such as humour.
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12 September 2018
12 September 2018
12 September 2018
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11 September 2018
