THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, No. 97

The long and winding war:
The firestorm over Williams debacle at Indian Wells re-ignited
as tournament directors say they were slighted
Richard Williams claims his daughters were mistreated,
Venus says it would take "an act of God" for her to return

By Bill Simons and Matthew Cronin

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Serena Williams borrows the champion's trophy after sister Venus beat her in the '02 Wimbledon final.

The crowd was in an uproar.

Upset with Venus Williams' last minute withdrawal from her '01 Pacific Life Open semifinal match with sister Serena, the Indian Wells brethren lit into the Williams family on the day of the women's final when Serena faced Kim Clijsters. First they raged at Serena when she walked on court, then booed and hissed at Richard and Venus Williams as they walked down the stair to the friends box. The crowd continued to hoot and holler with a vein-popping intensity throughout Serena's three-set win and some of the awards ceremony.

Stunned and irate, the Williams clan were overwhelmed and have shunned the desert tennis celebration ever since.

"I don't feel I'm wanted there and most of all I don't want to be there," Venus told Inside Tennis in August. "I prefer not to go. It's as simple as that. I don't like the way I was treated."

The controversy first arose after Venus failed to go on court and explain to fans why she withdrew. The fires were further flamed when some media outlets and players questioned the legitimacy of Venus' injury. The day before the semi, Elena Dementieva said "Richard is going to decide who wins tomorrow." And on the day after the pull-out, a tabloid article surfaced which claimed that Venus and Serena's matches were programmed by their controversial father, a charge both girls vehemently denied. After the final, Serena said the accusations were "scandalous lies," but the damage had already been done before she walked on court for the final.

Was the reaction of the crowd, who had paid good money in anticipation of an intriguing semi, completely understandable or a misdirected and mean-spirited response against Serena, not Venus (who had withdrawn)? Or, worse yet, was there a racist undertone to the unrestrained boo-fest?

Afterwards, ample fury raged, then simmered. But by March emotions seemed to have diminished. At last, one thought the nastiest tennis spat since [Billie Jean] King vs. [Bobby] Riggs had subsided.

PASARELL DEFENDS STANCE, SAYS HE WANTS ALL PLAYERS TO PLAY
After all, at this year's tournament – a full three years after the meltdown – when tournament director Charlie Pasarell was asked about his relationship with the sisters, he calmly responded, "We have a great relationship. I sincerely hope they come back. The fans would be … delighted to have them. It's really their decision." Pasarell then reiterated his longstanding and proud ("if we make it appealing enough they will come") approach to attracting players: i.e. that he simply made his tournament as fine as it could be because "I want the players to come back … because they think it's an important event … I don't think I've ever asked a player 'Will you please come to my tournament' … I want them to come and feel it's important, period."

Still, since the Williamses are such big attractions in their home state of California, and since the incident was so unusual and problematic, Pasarell was asked whether the situation called for "some unique outside-the-box thinking" on both sides? Pasarell replied, "We didn't do anything wrong," adding that there were many years that [Ivan] Lendl and [John] McEnroe didn't play the desert. He then seemed to firmly close the door, saying, 'We won't be talking about this anymore.' It comes up every year. It's done with."

That was it, one thought. But no, his buddy and business partner Ray Moore immediately reopened the door, saying, "I'm going to say one more thing. Charlie will probably kick me, but we tried to set up an official meeting … We've gone through their agents, we've done everything possible to sit down and discuss it and say 'How can we make it right?' … The meeting was set up at the LA Staples Center two years ago. They cancelled it. They refused to meet with us, refused to even talk. It sounds like the old Vietnam thing, we'll find a table, have all kinds of conditions. Believe you me, we tried. Why? Because they are great athletes and deserve to be here … [but] Charlie was slighted, they wouldn't even meet with him. … We ran into a brick wall [and] two weeks before this tournament we were told, 'Don't even raise the subject anymore. It's their decision.' It's like Charlie says, 'What do you do?' … We're not going to pay them special guarantees, or make special contributions to charities or other things that've been suggested. They just need to come back … [If Serena came back] she would get a rousing stand-up ovation. If they don't [come back] we're very unhappy and disappointed. But life moves on."

And apparently the Williams sisters will be moving on, too. Venus said that no one (with the exception of sponsor Pacific Life sending her a letter which she replied to) has gone out of their way to make good and had plus, had burned their bridges right there and then. "During the awards ceremony someone should have been brave enough to say something," she said. "Nobody did. They acted like it was all okay. I remember Serena saying, 'I want to say thank you to the people who support me and those who didn't, I love you anyway.' No one else said anything or acknowledged [what happened]. That's not right. There was no support at all. If someone would've spoken up and said it's not right, and that we were important enough that they wanted us there, maybe I would've gone back. Now it would take an act of God."

SERENA REMEMBERS THE JEERING
Serena was equally emphatic and was angered when it was suggested that she may have just been confronted with one bad crowd on one bad day. "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Did you hear how bad they were? It was like a bunch of 80-year-olds screaming at me for two hours. Uh-uh. It was crazy. They were crazy. It was terrible. I did have one fan who kept screaming, 'C'mon Serena.' I couldn't have won without him. But the rest of them, they were too much … I only play in places where people want and appreciate me. Obviously, they don't want me there and don't care about me there. I don't plan to go back. I don't see how that could ever happen."

Still, Serena and Venus' response was mild compared to the angry, wide-ranging response Richard Williams offered when Inside Tennis magazine's Bill Simons caught up with him at Wimbledon and he gave him the following fasten-your-seatbelt, reader-beware interview.

Interview with Richard Williams
Inside Tennis: Tournament director Ray Moore said Serena and Venus refused to talk to them about coming back.
Richard Williams: I don't know what they refused to do, but I can tell you this: We will not be back there, under no circumstances, no way. You treated us like dogs. … We're not dogs, we will not be coming back. Get someone else to do the things they were doing, but it will never work as well. They will not go back, because they're not accustomed to being abused. They wasn't brought up that way. And Ray Moore could have stopped the booing if he wanted to. But they didn't do anything. Charles Pasarell knew it was going to take place. He ordered a lot of security to come and stand close to me. If you know that something's going to take place, you should call the family and say, "Okay, we're going to have a problem, be aware." Ray Moore is from South Africa. The Caucasian people killed the African people. They abused them, they buried them in graves and robbed them of their futures and human rights. They legislated against black people. … He's from South Africa, and the way the Africaaners treated the black people over there …

Ron Cioffi/TR.net

Serena and Richard Williams watch Venus compete at the '04 Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

IT: But in Ray's defense …
RW: I don't have no defense for him …

IT: I do though, I know Ray Moore …
RW: I don't want to talk to you no more.

IT: But let me just ...
RW: I don't want to hear a defense of him.

IT: Okay, but he was really anti-apartheid.
RW: I don't know what he was. All I know is that no black child over there has the opportunity that he had. And I don't know that he ever tried to give one an opportunity. He could have done a lot more … I just know that it won't be us there. We have no reason to be there.

IT: Still, Richard, it could be said that the Christian thing is to turn the other cheek. A lot of people would like to see Venus and Serena there. Charlie and Ray have said they want them to come, they'd be welcomed with applause and a hearty reception.
RW: I've talked to Ray Moore and Charles Pasarell. They're really nice people. But if you brought anyone to Compton and people treated them like that, I would stop it myself. I would feel that I was a part of the crime if I didn't do anything.

IT: You're saying it's disrespectful and …
RW: It's just how you were taught. We were booed and no one gave a damn. Their home taught them it was okay to do that. And as for the Christian part, Christianity has tried for hundreds of years to control blacks and if you can't control them, kill them. I don't believe in that type of Christianity, [when] you say everything is okay. Martin Luther King believed that, that's why he's dead. … I was taught by my ma, if a person hits you – kill him. If the white man's trying to shoot you – get a shot gun and we'll stop them. That's what we had to do in Louisiana. I don't believe in turning no cheek, I don't believe in no one talking to me rough, and I'm not going to talk to you rough, but if a person talks to me rough, I'm gonna kick his ass. It don't make me any difference. I'm from the ghetto. And I'll never lose that part of me. I don't ever want to lose that.

IT: You're proud of that?
RW: Without a doubt.

IT: Is that toughness, that strength a key part of Serena and Venus' success?
RW: Where you are born and where you come from has nothing to do with you being tough. That's something you have to make for yourself. Your mom, your dad, God – no one else can bring that out from [within] you. But as far as being from Compton, yes, it helped them.

IT: Some claim that with wealth comes a certain softness?
RW: There is a kind of ease. The parents become a chauffeur, they'll have a cook, most likely have a swimming pool. There's not anything wrong with those things, they're nice if that's what you can afford to give your kids. But it has been proven to make kids less responsible and not able to make decisions. That's what's happening around the world today. At one time, your best friend was your family. But family members hardly see each other no more. So people in the ghetto are a lot better off. The ones I know are more honest, more trustworthy and more direct, once you get under the people who'll be lying, cheating, killing.

IT: If you were the USTA President, what would you do to get more African-Americans into tennis?
RW: I would never be in the USTA. I wouldn't want to be. I've been offered a lot of things by the USTA, but I don't blame them, because the USTA was made for white people, not black people. Black men should do their own tennis ventures. The USTA should take all blacks off their teams and tournaments. Black men should have separate lessons, separate quarters. You should have different races of people against each other and then you would find out who can really play. But I wouldn't want nothing to do with anything that white people have set up. I need to set up my own thing.

IT: You don't want integration in tennis, you want separation?
RW: It should be that way. It doesn't help black people. It only helps white people. If it was football, basketball, baseball, it would help the whites …

IT: Well the NBA is certainly dominated …
RW: Well it doesn't help black people.

IT: It's dominated by wealthy blacks.
RW: I'm trying to get them to see that the black man didn't have to depend on the white man so that he believes that there is nothing else in life for him.

IT: But your daughters compete in what is said to be the white world of tennis.
RW: We weren't trying to compete, they kept asking us to compete and doing things that they'd never do for no one else. I was interested in being with Don King, the boxing promoter, I never thought that they had to play in this game here.

IT: But you yourself brought them to tournaments, you brought them to Oakland.
RW: They wanted to come to the tournaments, I never cared. You know, the Japanese, the Chinese, the English do their thing, why do the black people have to try to go do things with the white people? They should do their own thing.

IT: But here at Wimbledon you see Russians, Chinese, Moroccans, Slovakians, African-Americans, Caucasians. There's a tremendous mix.
RW: Every time we go to a Grand Slam we're interrupted by something. Saw McEnroe running around saying he can beat Venus, Serena or both. Why are they always picking on us? You don't see them going to an Asian player, or the Belgian player. Why us? Why is Martina talking about the things she's talking about? Why is it that we can't get the same respect? It's to show other blacks, don't come [here] 'cause we're going to treat you like a dog and make you unwelcome so you keep the hell away from here. Every big tournament we go to, here come a bunch of s---. Every time! It's amazing! There's a conspiracy. Something's definitely wrong. A man that's his age, McEnroe, keeps running around with this stuff. If he knew how to do something else for a living, he wouldn't have time for a bunch of bull. If Martina had some training to do something, she wouldn't be running around talking about what. They shouldn't be still focused on tennis. Who would want to be a damn tennis player till they're 30 years old? Just who? It's disturbing, and it's not like we bother no one.

IT: But Serena and Venus seem to be very happy as players. Serena said that there's nothing like walking out onto a tennis court at one o'clock. Do you think they're happy as players?
RW: I don't know. I don't ask them because I don't see how anyone would be happy at anything if that's all they gonna do. Now since they're doing more, maybe they could be happy. I never talk about no tennis with them. And we talk very, very much. We talk about business, how's your education, what book did you read.

IT: So what's the bottom line here? Do you think America is a good country?
RW: Yes, there's no country in the world like America. No place. Zillions of people have come to America. I don't want to live no place else but America. America gives more opportunities to anyone in the world than anywhere else.

IT: So it's no accident that Venus and Serena, two kids from the ghetto, made it in America?
RW: That's the only place it could happen. The one thing I like about America more than anything else is that you can get an education. If you get an education you can always create your dream, your destiny.

This article appears in the September issue of Inside Tennis magazine. To subscribe, call 510-530-2200