![]() ![]() ![]() She won Tokyo at the end of September, but took time off to go to school and suffered a stress fracture in her foot. At Indian Wells, both the Williamses played reasonably well, but off court, they were as cagey and as defensive as they’ve been at any time during their careers.Ĭoming into Indian Wells, Serena had played in only three tournaments since being bounced out of the 2000 U. Williams observers say that Venus and Serena are much more skittish when Pop is around and, given the numerous problems that have occurred between Richard and Oracene over the past six months, it’s no wonder that both Venus and Serena have played sparingly since last October. So why the meltdown here and why the first two weeks of March, rather than in some other month at some other tournament? Could it be because it was the emotionally volatile Richard who accompanied the girls to the desert, rather than their more mellow mother, Oracene, who is now separated from Richard? Why didn’t they act more quickly? Some claim that officials feel that any press is good press and that the players should be viewed more as entertainers than athletes - the integrity of the sport be dammed. As a result, the situation got so out of control that the tour gave itself a gigantic black eye, one that may take years to repair. Senior Sanex WTA Tour officials, who ignored the significance of Dementieva’s comments until it was too late and who have little or no personal connection to the Williams’ family despite the fact that the family has been on the tour for five years now. Who else is to blame? The players who speculated that the sisters’ matches have been fixed with no evidence save for how badly they usually play against each other. Without question, the Williamses are partly to blame for the scandal. Instead, tennis was bloodied from the moment Dementieva let loose on Wednesday evening and didn’t come off the mat until Sunday morning, when the last newspaper hit the sidewalk with Serena’s denials. If the Williamses did get this, then they might not have kept shrugging off questions for the two days leading up to the final and would have emphatically denied the accusations when they occurred. Serena and Venus rarely read the press and appear sheltered enough that they don’t yet comprehend what even the suspicion of matches being fixed can do to a sport - like the Black Sox scandal did to baseball. That Serena was able to fight off the most hostile crowd in California history and subdue hard-hitting Belgian Kim Clijsters 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 for the title is a minor miracle, if you consider that the debate that raged for four days over the Williams’ family affairs had ruinous implications for the sport. Unfortunately, the stories were of the “Are the Williamses rigging matches?” veriety. Over the next few days, newspapers, wire services, TV, radio and the Internet were filled with more tennis-related stories than the sport has seen in a non-Grand Slam week during the Open era. God bless America, let the speculation ring. People are always just going to speculate things.” Obviously we’re sisters, we’re very close. “People have freedom of speech,” she said. When informed that few people believed that Venus was too injured to play and that Elena Dementieva had stated the day before that it would be Richard’s decision as to who would win the sisters’ match, Serena wowed no one with her casual indignation and less than emphatic denials. Revisit Serena, 10 minutes after her sister, Venus, had caused the biggest hullabaloo the desert had seen since the discovery of the hot springs by pulling out of the sisters’ highly anticipated semi with a sore knee. “Hot pink for a hot girl,” said Williams of her color of choice. INDIAN WELLS - Meet cheerful and cheeky Serena Williams, four days into the Tennis Master Series Wells after a casual second-round victory where she wowed fans with blazing groundstrokes and her new hot pink dress. Matt’s coverage of the event originally appeared in Inside Tennis. With the return of Serena Williams to Indian Wells, we are re-running Matt’s story written from the tournament that appeared on this site. However, our coverage of the last 14 years of pro tennis is unrivaled in the world of online news. Editor’s Note: For most observers in the world of tennis, the story of Serena Williams’ emotional rejection of the Indian Wells tournament is a faint and distant memory. ![]()
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