On Saturday, Serena Williams, winner of  23 Grand Slam singles titles,  lost to  Naomi Osaka in the finals of the U.S. Open.  Osaka was the better player and deserved to win. But the contest was marred by bad reffing.  Well, that’s one way to look at it.

Williams’s eruption came in the second set of Saturday’s U.S. Open final — a finger-pointing tirade at chair umpire Carlos Ramos that drew her third penalty of the match; cost her a game when she stood just two games from defeat to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka, who was by far the better and steadier player; and, on Sunday, resulted in a $17,000 fine.

After Williams’s rage subsided and the trophies were awarded — with Williams playing peacemaker, calling on the New York crowd to quit booing and celebrate Osaka, who wept through what should have been her shining moment following her 6-2, 6-4 triumph — Williams started an overdue conversation on two issues that tennis has dodged for too long:

● A rule book that is sorely in need of overhaul and capriciously applied — particularly on widely violated infractions such as foot faults and impermissible coaching. (It was a rarely called coaching violation that triggered the first strike against Williams on Saturday.)

● A double standard for men and women regarding on-court decorum, whether that’s Williams getting slapped with her third violation in Saturday’s final for berating Ramos and calling him a “thief” for docking her a point or French player Alizé Cornet being penalized earlier in the tournament for changing her shirt on-court under sweltering conditions — as is male players’ right. As Williams put it in her post-match interview: “I’ve seen other men call other umpires several things. I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality and for all kinds of stuff. . . . He has never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief.’ ”

She is right on both counts.  Nearly 24 hours later, the Women’s Tennis Association acknowledged Williams’s point in a statement released Sunday night. “The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs. women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same. We do not believe that this was done [Saturday] night.”

Not surprisingly, they didn’t see it that way on Fox News. Instead, what they saw was a (black) athlete who didn’t know her place.

Nearly 24 hours later, the Women’s Tennis Association acknowledged Williams’s point in a statement released Sunday night. “The WTA believes that there should be no difference in the standards of tolerance provided to the emotions expressed by men vs. women and is committed to working with the sport to ensure that all players are treated the same. We do not believe that this was done [Saturday] night.”

Unfortunately, the talk of the US Open isn’t about Serena’s defeat or Osaka’s win, but the referee.