A quick summary of the situation that went on at Indian
Wells is originally, On March 15, 2001, Venus and Serena were supposed to play
against each other in a match, but Venus dropped out 4 minutes before game time
claiming she had tendinitis. On an
average day, if something is wrong with the athlete, they will let officials
know at least 30 minutes before a match, but that did not happen in this
case. Some people speculated that the
Williams’ sister’s father wanted Serena to win, so he told Venus to lose on
purpose/drop out the match, but that was false.
Also, a lot of people think that Venus should have least went out on the
court and tried, but I disagree because one move the wrong way could have made
the injury even worse than what it was.
Two Days after that day, on March 17, 2001, Venus and her dad arrived at
Indian Wells to watch Serena play, and while walking down the stairs, almost
the whole stadium booed them, their father even mention he heard some pretty
racial slurs as well. My opinion on all
of this is, I think that Venus should have let the officials know that there
would be a slight chance that she wouldn’t be playing, just so that they could
have a heads up. Lastly, I understand
that fans were upset that they were not able to see Serena and Venus play
against each other, but yelling out racial slurs was just disrespectful in my
eyes. My question is, do you think that
race played a huge part in the booing on March 17, 2001?
-Turea Moore
-Turea Moore
I think race did play a role in the booing on March 17,2001. You do not see many African Americans tennis players who are as good as the Williams' sisters.How Venus went about dropping out of the match, waiting 4 minutes before it suppose to start will bring controversy to the match. I believe if any other player would of dropped out of the match it would not cause this much trouble. I do not believe the Williams' sisters father told Venus to drop out of the match however how they went about it is what cause the out lashes.
ReplyDelete-Jenny Kelley
I agree with Jenny that race did play a roll in the booing. At that point and even to this day, tennis has been a predominantly white sport, and I think that the tennis fan base was kind of caught off guard by the emergence of two black athletes who were dominant. I can understand how the crowd thought that Venus intentionally pulled out of the match, but I do not believe that was the case. There is too much risk in doing that and it could have tainted the careers of both the William's sisters if that was ever proven true.
ReplyDeleteDerek Zyski
According to the postscript of the sisters at Indian Wells, Venus had informed the tour director two hours before the match was supposed to begin that she was not going to play Serena and drop out due to injury. Now I’m not sure whether to believe this or not, but for this I am going to believe her. As an athlete, she did the correct thing of notifying officials plenty of time ahead and no one should be mad at her because she has the right to drop out at any time if she has a game time injury decision. They director should be the one to receive all of the negativity not the Williams’ family. If I was in his/her position I would feel so guilty to see all of this that came from the lack of communication from the tournament staff. As far as the question of racism goes in this situation, yes it was definitely prevalent here unfortunately. I cannot believe that it was blow up so bad just because of 1 cancelation. I think the fact that all the rumors that were going around before the match had negatively influenced the crowd beforehand. I believe that if they were to go on and play that match, regardless of who won it, there would still be critics towards the Williams family.
ReplyDeleteBy: RJ Hefflinger
RJ,
DeleteI'm glad you brought up what the postscript said about Venus notifying officials at least two hours beforehand. Serena even asked Venus why they hadn't announced that the match was not going to be played. So, I agree with you that the tournament officials needed to communicate with the fans and not allow the impression of wrongdoing to fall only on Venus.
Dr. Spencer
Hi Turea,
ReplyDeleteI feel like this was a tough situation for everyone involved. Mainly I would say the Williams sisters and their family. This was also a rough situation for the event hosts putting on the Indian Wells tournament. This was also upsetting to see how the fans reacted to the whole situation. According to class discussion the hosts knew that Venus was going to forfeit the match due to injury. However, the fans didn't hear of this until just before the match was supposed to take place. I could see how frustrated the fans could be because of the lack of communication. Even though they didn't know until just before the match, it's embarrassing how the fans acted to the Williams family. Including racist slurs, and derogatory sayings to their family. I believe this situation was handled very poorly, and is a main reason way the Williams sisters have yet to return to Indian Wells.
-Brett Creamer
I think that race played a role in the Indian Wells incident. The situation as a whole though was pretty sticky. Personally, I don't think Venus was at fault at all, she gave the officials a 2 hour notice, they made the decision to not announce it until right before the match's start time. I think the fans did not know the situtaion, so they automatically assumed it was Venus's fault, when really, it was the officials. I also think that the fans acted horribly and disrespectfully when Venus and her father showed up two days later. There is no excuse for that kind of behavior from a large fan group, especially in such a prestigious sport. I think the situation would have gone a little differently if Venus had not been an African American in a predominantly white sport. I also think the Williams' sisters took the right plan of action by permanently boycotting that tournament.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Zoellick
I don't think that race played a role in this incident. I think that people were just mad and decided to use any insult they could when they were seen. I do agree that Venus should have used proper protocol to warn the officials about her condition though. If she had done that then maybe this whole thing would not have been so bad. When people get angry and run out of insults based on the event then they will start going for physical features and this is what happened here.
ReplyDeleteSam Melchor
I believe that race did play an issue, but it was not necessarily meant to be an issue. I agree with what Sam is saying, that people were angry, and reverted back to one of the most basic forms of insults, race. I have not followed the Williams' sister much, so I can't say for sure that race has or hasn't followed them before. But based solely on this issue I can agree with Sam. I feel as though the situation was handled poorly, but the fans have every right to boo. It may not be Venus' fault, but they were paying customers who did not receive their product because of Venus (or so they thought).
ReplyDelete-Ryan Hetrick
Turea,
ReplyDeleteInitially, I don't think race had anything to do with the situation. In other words, if there had been a pair of white tennis-playing sisters who acted the same way with a father who was always around and who was very much known in the professional tennis world, the same thing would've happened. However, I wouldn't put it past any tennis fans (or sports fans in general) to incorporate race in a situation like this. In sports, fans forget that professional athletes are humans too and automatically think that they should perform like some sort of super-heroes at every instance in which they're in the public eye. Most recently, fans acted extremely foolish booing at quarterback Matt Cassel when he had to leave the game due to an injury. When it comes down to it, no athlete diserves to be booed if they are hurt in any way possible, regardless of how poorly he/she may be performing and regardless of whether the fans believe the sincerity of the injury or not.
-Chris Cournan
Turea,
ReplyDeleteI believe race had nothing to do with the situation. I say this because fans accused the sisters of "cheating" basically. The fans thought the father wanted Serena to win so told Venus to lose on purpose. They were upset because they were anticipating to see a competitive match against two great tennis players. When Venus and her father went to see Serena play and their father heard racial slurs I thought it was heard from one or two people and not the whole crowd. Yes, everyone might have booed them, but I don't believe everyone was shouting out racial slurs. That was just someone who wanting to show-off their ignorance.
-Sparkle Robinson
I agree with Sparkle and Chris, I also don't think race has anything to do with it and if it was two white players the same thing would have happened. I think the fans were just upset at the fact that the match was canceled only a few moments before it should have began, especially since everyone wants to see the Williams sisters play against each other. Its understandable for the fans to get upset over a situation like this, but yelling racial slurs obviously crosses the line and is very ignorant. Obviously Venus should have told the officials that she wasn't going to be able to play well before the match but again, that doesn't give the right to yell racial slurs at them.
ReplyDelete-Joey D'Agostino
I also believe that race didn't have anything to do with the crowd reacting the way they did. I don't think there's another example of this out there, but if another sibling match-up were to happen like this I believe fans would react the same way regardless of race. The individuals that yelled racial slurs were obviously up and quite possibly racist, but again I believe fans would react the same way regardless of race when there's that much hype built up for a match between two siblings of that caliber.
ReplyDelete-Michael Discipio