Serena Williams advanced to the third round of the US Open in front of a cavalcade of stars Wednesday, with a sensational upset of No. 2-seeded Anett Kontaveit 7-6, 2-6, 6-2.
Among those stars were Empress of Soul Gladys Knight chart legend Dionne Warwick, which led to a bit of an awkward mixup on the ESPN broadcast of the match.
Mary Carillo and Chanda Rubin, who were calling the match, were calling out some of the stars in attendance, and as the camera came onto Warwick, they enthusiastically -- and seemingly wrongly -- exclaimed it was Knight.
“Gladys Knight!” Carillo said when Rubin pointed out there were more stars in play. Rubin went on to agree.
Unacceptable, from both of them. pic.twitter.com/kVSTGRslPs
— Novaxx Djokoverit. 🙄 (@Stevies_Wonder) August 31, 2022
MORE: Follow Serena Williams at the US Open
For Rubin's part, she said it was a case of the camera and her eyes not being in the same place.
Too bad I was initially looking at the court (where Auntie Gladys was in the stands) and not our program monitor that showed Ms. Dionne... mistake was immediately corrected.🤦🏽♀️
— Chanda Rubin (@Chanda_Rubin) September 1, 2022
"Too bad I was initially looking at the court (where Auntie Gladys was in the stands) and not our program monitor that showed Ms. Dionne... mistake was immediately corrected," Rubin wrote in reply to the initial tweet.
Warwick took the apparent mishap in stride.
Hi, I’m Gladys Knight… and instead of taking that midnight train to Georgia, I won’t walk on by but will say a little prayer for you 😂😐
— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) September 1, 2022
There's a chance this was just a perfectly honest mistake. Best to file it away under "we'll never really know."
