Getting Caught in No Man's Land: Between Serena and Richard Williams

It was late last night when I posted that piece on Richard William's obnoxious mouth in an interview with The Deccan Herold while there for the Bangalore Open. So, I didn't put together the two halves of this story.

When you put things in chronological order, it's easy to see what happened.

First, R Satya of the Deccan Herold interviewed Richard Williams in this article:

Just like his daughters Venus and Serena, Richard Williams is a familiar figure at most tennis centres across the world.

While his daughters make headlines with their brand of tennis, father Williams does so with his statements. Unafraid to speak his mind, Williams, who was in the Garden City last week for the Bangalore Open, spoke to Deccan Herald on Venus and Serena's early years and about a life beyond the baseline.

In the excerpts that follow, note what Williams says in this one:

Tennis is a prejudice game. Well, I'm Black and I'm prejudiced, very prejudiced. I'll be always prejudiced as the White man. The White man hated me all my life and I hate him. That's no secret. I'm not even an American, it just so happens that I was born in America. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be. But if you get some little White no good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert who cannot hit the ball, they will claim this is great.

(Note the god-awful English, which Serena then tries to scrape off Richard and onto the author of the article.) Embarrassing, eh? Plus, Daddy has just upstaged you again, stealing your headlines with that attention-grabbing mouth of his.

So, whom does Serena get mad at? Not Daddy, the one to blame. She makes something out of nothing by blowing a gasket over this OTHER article in the Deccan Herold by the same writer. She trumps up her complaint by mischaracterizing the article and failing to include a link to it so readers can see if she's telling the truth about it:

Serena reigns supreme

By R Satya, DH News Service, Bangalore:

Former world number one Serena Williams hit a ball into to the crowd in celebration, but the ball flew out of the stadium. I'm sorry, she said. Well, that mishit summed up the finale in a nutshell.

Coming into the final with fine victories in the semifinals the previous day, the huge crowd turnout expected another great fare from Serena and Patty Schnyder. Sadly, the error-filled 75-minute title clash never rose above the mediocre. The third-seeded Serena did play the big points well to fall across the line.

The American made her maiden trip to India a memorable one. The out of sorts Serena overcame an equally out of sorts Schnyder 7-5, 6-3 to emerge triumphant in the $600,000 Bangalore Open at the KSLTA stadium courts on Sunday.

Yes, you read right. That's is the actual text of the newspaper article that Serena is somehow mad about.

Then, in an obviously ironic reference to this gushing headline at the Official Bangalore Open website - SERENA WILLIAMS TO ENTHRALL SPECTATORS AT BANGALORE - the article shows that something had quelled all that enthusiasm for a chance to see the great Serena:

...Barring a couple of points, there was very little that caught the interest of the spectators. The arrival of Indian cricketer S Sreesanth was a welcome relief from the poor show on court.

Indeed, since not just Richard's disgusting mouth, but also the tennis itself sucked (on both ends of the court) what was there for the crowd to be enthralled about? Do you think her father's hate comes across any less putridly among Hindus in India than it does among Hispanics and whites here? In fact, the most offended are blacks with a white parent and white grandparents. Can you think of any? Like in pro tennis and politics?

Duh, people don't like to be hated for just existing = not being the right color for you.

Read the rest of the article on the final entitled Serena Reigns Supreme. It deals with her fairly, going on to tell that Serena cut down on her errors near the end and played the big points well enough to win.

So what is there for her to be so mad about?

Here's her rant, on her website.

See, I link to to it. So the reader can check it out to see whether what I say about it is true. How come Serena doesn't do that with the Deccan Herold article she whines about?

Honest people link to an article they're criticizing, because otherwise Serena, you have zero credibility. People are not as stupid as you think: they smell a straw man in your account of an article you don't let your readers see. Indeed, that is so suspicious that it was my sole reason for searching the Internet till I found it.

Now here is my post on Serena's rant, where I expose everything false, ironic and absurd about it, including the THREAT she uttered at the author.

Guess what? That threat already seems to be materializing, because the WTA is moving to degrade the Bangalore Open to a Tier 3 tournament. You read right, India. No WTA Tier II tournament in India! Heads will roll in Bangalore over that.

See Bangalore Open's status up for debate in WTA's plans at ESPN.

Why? All because Serena's father upstaged and embarrassed her again. So she must vent her fury on SOMEONE, right? Look out, innocent bystanders.

Instead of humoring and appeasing her, the WTA should be disciplining her for abusing her influence like that and should be making rules to penalize players for remote hate talk through the irresponsible mouths of their parents. A parent like Richard Williams should be banned from the grounds of all tournaments.

Technorati Tags: tennis