This past weekend, Serena Williams competed in the US Open finals against Naomi Osaka in what has started to hit news as a controversial match.  Williams received three separate violations in the match for receiving coaching, slamming her racket, and calling the umpire a thief for stealing a point away from her. It was this third violation that ultimately resulted in the loss of a game, and Osaka went on to win the match in two sets (6-2 and 6-4). This match has ultimately led to discussions from athletes, fans, and reporters concerning possible gender bias when it comes to refereeing, but that is not the focal point when it comes to addressing the mindset of an athlete. The primary issue at hand is that Williams allowed a referee to take her focus out of the match. After yelling at the referee on multiple occasions and even breaking her racket, it was clear that Williams was not in the right mindset for competition.

Referees are often the subjects of criticism and this is primarily because in the best-case scenario they do not get noticed at all. It is not until they make a controversial call that they even get noticed. As referee Alan Lewis put it, “The objective of a referee is not to get mentioned. I tell a lot of young referees that not being mentioned is king. If you can achieve that, that then it has been a pretty good game.” Unfortunately, referees are subject to the same fallibility as everybody else. Sometimes they make mistakes and some referees are better than others. In some cases, referees are simply bad at their jobs. However, it is not the job of the athlete to point out the poor or disagreeable calls that are made by the referee. That is the job of the fans, coaches, and other referees. As an athlete, you are unable to change the ruling of the referee, so why focus on something that you are entirely incapable of changing?

In the case of the US Open finals, the question Serena Williams should have been asking is not whether or not the call was right or just, but how to win despite the calls that did not go in her favor. As soon as the focus was shifted away from something that she could control, the match was essentially over. As an athlete, you have to focus solely on the things that you are capable of controlling. You cannot affect the referee’s calls, the fans, the venue, the other players, or the coaches. However, you can affect your reaction to those external factors. Keep your focus on the things you can control!