Serena Williams Refuses To Play At Indian Wells
Serena and Venus Williams’ ongoing boycott of the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, Calif., could jeopardize their participation at other tournaments under recently adopted rules for mandatory events set to kick in next year. But provisions in the rules should allow the sisters to avoid suspensions.
Approved by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour board at Wimbledon, the new rules stipulate that players who withdraw from one of the tour’s five “premier” events (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing and the Tour Championships) face fines as well as a two-tournament ban at the next two premier events unless they perform promotional activities for the missed event. That obligation can be met during the tournament or within a year.
Current penalties include fines, but no suspension.
The Williams sisters have steadfastly declined to participate at the Pacific Life Open since 2001. That year, Venus defaulted to Serena minutes before their semifinal started. Spectators subsequently jeered Serena in the final. The sisters and their father, Richard, have said they believe the crowd’s actions were racially motivated.
“Hopefully they’ll play, but if they don’t they will have to do what any other player would have to do,” Scott said of the two multiple major winners.
Monday at the Bank of the West Classic in Palo Alto, Calif., top-seeded Serena reiterated her unwillingness to play in the California desert near Palm Springs.
“I’m not going to Indian Wells,” said the fifth-ranked American, who lost the Wimbledon final to older sister Venus. “That’s just the bottom line.” “I honestly don’t think they would want me to go,” she added when asked about fulfilling promotional obligations to avoid a suspension. “I wouldn’t have anything positive to say. It would be kind of shooting themselves in the foot. I would be more than happy to go and tell them how I really feel.”
“Some things you have to stand up for,” Serena said. “There’s been a lot of people in the past that are my race that have stood up for a lot more than not playing Indian Wells. That’s the least I can do.”
Comment by Gary on 4 September 2008:
At the time this incident happened throughout the whole match the tournament organizers and officials made no announcements requesting the crowd to refrain from booing/jeering or making racially abusive remarks. A teenager was allowed to face a hostile abusive crowd of several thousands of people on her own over an extended period of time!
Several members of the crowd at Indian Wells that day have publicly expressed their embarrassment, disappointment and enduring memory of the behaviour of the crowd.
However, neither Larry Scott, CEO of the WTA Tour or the Indian Wells owners/investors have provided any information on what measures they would take to prevent paying members of the public including children and players being exposed to such abuse in the future. They have not indicated what measures they have put in place to show that such behaviour is unacceptable! Is this the professional image they wish to portray for tennis?
This is especially surprising since a new blue-print for the WTA was recently released. Can a professional sports association be seen to tolerate the intolerable whilst it’s athletes (not just the Williams sisters but many of the top 10 seeds) continue to vote with their feet? It seems as if the new generation tennis players reflect the predominating attitudes of their generation on a whole and have no tolerance for the intolerable.
Serena was and is FIRST a human being - then somewhere down the list she is a professional tennis player. The WTA seem only to have been able to focus on the commodity of the tennis player and not the human being. Ultimately, this will prove to be bad business as the essence of sport is about ‘human’ challenge and the achievement of human potential and it is this that makes the best and most compelling drama. Sports answers the question what is it possible for a human being to achieve?
Williams sisters - stay human and stay away! Larry Scott/WTA/Indian Wells - humaneness is good sports business!