A New York Times article from over the weekend focused on the amount of fines handed out to tennis players at Grand Slam tournaments from 1998 to 2018, noting that men are penalized more than women.

There’s one “significant” difference and it pertains to what Serena Williams dealt with in the U.S. Open: Coaching violations.

It is unclear why women are penalized more often for violating the rule. They are accustomed to receiving in-match coaching during regular tour events, where coaches are allowed to come on court once per set with certain exceptions. This type of coaching has been allowed during WTA matches since the 2009 season, but coaching from the stands remains illegal.

Williams’ husband Alex Ohanian argued that the stats used weren’t the right ones to cite in a Twitter rant on Sunday:

Statistics help for @NYTimes @christopherclarey please: The argument is that women are punished more often *per incident* than men are. These data only show there are more penalties for men *total.*https://t.co/njqgH4Ut8a pic.twitter.com/2Jiqtn0l7I — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

E.g. If men were punished 344 times out of 3440 audible obscenities (10% enforcement), but women were punished 140 times out of 700 audible obscenities (20% enforcement) — that would mean women are penalized 2x more often than men for the same violation. — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

Cc @ christophclarey – happy to help fund an independent research team to run the actual analysis! Statistics can be illuminating when you know what you're looking for. — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

Live footage of @christophclarey when he realizes he wasted all that ink on a misleading headline with a body of "research" that means literally nothing. How will @nytimes respond? pic.twitter.com/eHqK7Wcgxp — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

And so that some good comes out of this, I've donated $10 for every word (714) in that misleading article to @DonorsChoose classroom projects to make sure the next generation gets access to learn basic statistics. Thank you, @christophclarey. pic.twitter.com/ccJtpxMBR0 — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver jumped in and agreed:

The study doesn't show that. It shows that male players are fined more, but that could be because they misbehave more. (Indeed, from watching a fair bit of tennis, the men do misbehave more). This data doesn't tell us anything about whether they're punished at greater rates. https://t.co/vJYoKNMzYQ — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 15, 2018

Read my mind, Nate! I'd love to know @NYtimes editorial process on statistical analysis. This article is going to become a case study in flawed analysis in highschool stats classes. https://t.co/H25WrEwaVe — Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 16, 2018

Ohanian also called out another publication for coverage of his tweets: