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Richard Williams decries fans as racist
By Doug Smith, USA TODAY
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — In times of trouble, Richard
Williams says he often reflects on advice his mother gave him when he was a
much younger man.
"My mom taught me to do all I can to avoid a problem, but
she also told me if a problem comes, fight like the devil in hell," Williams
says. "Don't let any force of evil beat you up."
Williams says he saw evil at work as he watched an angry
crowd in Indian Wells, Calif., shower wave after wave of derisive boos on his
daughter, Serena, last week during the Indian Wells tournament final. He decided
he shouldn't take it anymore.
"I was crying inside the whole time," Williams says. "Saying
'how can they do this?' "
The Williams sisters and their father were harshly booed
when Serena played Kim Clijsters after Venus, citing a knee injury, withdrew
from a semifinal clash with Serena moments before the match was to have started
2 days earlier. Players and media routinely have raised questions about fixed
matches when the sisters played.
Breaking a weeklong silence, Richard Williams responded
forcefully in an interview with USA TODAY. Speaking freely and at times, emotionally,
Williams:
- Denied that he directs his daughters to lose to one another.
- Charged that some top-ranked female pros were jealous of the Williams family's
success.
- Vowed never to return to Indian Wells.
- Accused the media of biased coverage of his family and said ESPN announcers
(Pam Shriver and Mary Joe Fernandez) were derelict for failing to criticize
the behavior of Indian Wells' fans when Serena defeated Cljisters.
Former New York mayor David Dinkins, a U.S. Tennis Association
board member, was among a number of tennis officials who were appalled by the
crowd's action.
"Irrespective of what they thought — whether they
thought Venus was injured or whether they thought Richard told her not to play
— it was inexcusable for the crowd to behave the way they did," says Dinkins,
who was not at the match. "Serena hadn't done anything. They were booing Serena's
double faults and crap like that. Talk about unsportsmanlike. I'll be 74 in
July, so I'm painfully aware that there is racism in our country. Doesn't mean
everybody is racist, but too many are."
Venus, 20, and Serena, 19, are among the top seeds at the
Ericsson Open, which began Wednesday. Two years ago, Venus beat Serena in the
final. They could meet again Saturday in the final. The Ericsson Open crowds
greeted the sisters warmly in first-round victories during the weekend, but
Richard says he's no longer sure how crowds will react to him or his daughters.
"Whether it's the Ericsson or any other tournament, I will
go there as leery as possible and watch my back at all times," he says. "Now
I don't know what to expect, and I don't think I ever will again.
"I had trouble trying to hold back tears. All I could think
of was my child was out on that court by herself in front of all these ignorant
people. If I were Venus or Serena, I'd never play Indian Wells again. Whether
they go back again is up to them."
The sisters say they have fond memories of the desert event
but haven't decided about returning next year.
"I won my first title (1999) there," Serena says. "A few
people there supported me, but I don't feel loved there anymore. I don't know
if I will go back."
Says Venus: "People are so ready to believe that racism
doesn't exist. Just because it hasn't happened to you or you don't see it doesn't
mean it doesn't exist. It was just 40 years ago that black people and other
people, Jews, Orientals, were fighting just to be treated fairly. This country
has a history of treating minorities badly, and that's sad."
Siblings not rivals
Locker-room suspicions that the sisters intentionally
have lost to each other on their father's orders have detracted from their rise
to the top (Venus is No. 3 in the world, and Serena is No. 7) and superstardom.
The National Enquirer reported recently that Richard ordered Serena
to lose to Venus in their semifinal match, citing the sisters' cousin, Franklin
Davis, as the source.
Serena won the 1999 U.S. Open championship; last year,
Venus won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
"The media is trying to nullify what Venus and Serena have
done, cast a shadow on the family," Williams says. "No, I have never asked Venus
or Serena to lose a match. When Serena lost at Wimbledon, she cried like hell,
not because someone asked her to lose but because Serena hates to lose. Venus
isn't like that. When Venus loses, she walks off the court and is ready to get
something to eat."
Richard says he's still disturbed that ESPN's Shriver and
Fernandez didn't chastise the Indian Wells crowd for its behavior.
"I really believe they covered for the crowd because they
kept saying, 'Eventually, it will stop,' Richard says. "If you look at it from
that standpoint, then you're contributing to what's going on. I don't understand
why they wouldn't believe Venus was hurting. She was examined by a certified
doctor. That doctor's word should have been good for something. Nobody questioned
Lindsay Davenport when she was injured last year (at the Olympics)."
Shriver's response: "At one point, we tried to explain
why the crowd was booing. Some of the people in the stands were also there Thursday
night, waiting to see the much-hyped semifinal match between the sisters, and
the match didn't happen. So there was frustration. We also talked about the
comments through the years that they didn't like to be in the same tournament,
they didn't like to play each other, so some people felt, wow, could she really
be injured?
"From the Williams' standpoint, we pointed out that she's
had a lot of injuries and knee tendinitis has been one of them. I haven't spoken
to Richard, but I would expect him to want us to be more pro-Williams. But we
have to be balanced."
Siblings and rivals
Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Pouissant says the public should
have more empathy for the sisters because of the conflicting tensions they must
deal with when they're pitted against each other, especially in the final of
major events.
"It's a hell of a hard psychological position to be in,"
Pouissant says. "The kind of emotional juggling that takes place internally
is quite a strain and burden. Maybe fans think they should be superhumans and
not have human emotions."
Men's star player Andre Agassi empathizes with the Williams'
sisters.
"Every time I watch them play, there is always an additional
element of sibling and sibling going on that I couldn't even bear to imagine,"
Agassi says. "For them as a family to compete against each other in such a big
arena, it must be difficult."
Williams says jealousy in the locker room is prompted by
the family's enormous wealth, estimated at more than $150 million with prize
money and endorsements.
"Every girl in the locker room feels she should be in the
place we're in," he says. "Jealousy devours you, makes you feel you don't have
something that you want."
Williams also says a fan in the stands at Indian Wells
yelled he would "skin him alive." The sisters' father hopes that he again would
walk away if threatened at future events.
"The only thing I can promise anyone is that as long as
they're just talking, they're safe," Williams says. "But nobody better try to
skin me alive, because I'm going to try to defend myself. I'm not going to do
what Martin Luther King did and get hit on one cheek and turn the other one.
I'm definitely going to do what Malcolm X would have done."
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