On Sept. 8, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka met in the final match of the U.S. Open tennis tournament held in New York City. Their confrontation marked the second year in a row that two athletes of African descent had competed for the tournament championship.

Williams, perhaps the greatest female tennis player in history, was seeking her 24th “major” title while Osaka was looking for her first.

Osaka was poised and focused from the beginning of the match until the end. Undaunted by Williams’ experience and reputation, Osaka “broke” her opponent’s serve four times while losing only one of her own service games. She cruised to a 6-2, 6-4 win in what can only be considered a major upset.

Unfortunately, the match will also be remembered for Williams’s emotional outbursts directed mainly at the match’s chair umpire. He assessed her three “code violations,” which caused her to forfeit a game in the second set, making Osaka’s job that much easier.

The first violation was for Williams’s coach making hand signals encouraging her to try a different tactic. Williams denied the allegation but her coach later confessed to the transgression.

Then, when it looked like Williams would get back into the match by breaking Osaka’s serve, Williams immediately lost her own service game and smashed her racket in frustration, resulting in her second code violation.

Completely losing her temper, Williams continued to berate the umpire, calling him a “liar” and a “thief.” This verbal tirade resulted in Williams’s third violation and the loss of a game.

In her post-match interview, Williams accused the umpire of sexism and of singling her out for special mistreatment.

Throughout all of this drama, Osaka remained calm and outplayed her opponent – as the final score shows.

Osaka will have to do lots more winning to be considered as good a player as Williams. But in this particular match, Osaka was better and deserved to win.

For that reason, she has taken her place forever in tennis history as the champion of a major professional tournament.