Richard Williams Blasts WTA Tour

Venus and Serena Williams have brought excitement and “a ton of money” to women’s tennis, and the family deserves more of the WTA Tour’s windfall, their father said Tuesday.

“Venus and Serena are not sharing in the revenues packages that the WTA is collecting because of them,” Richard Williams said. “It’s very unfair, and something should be done. I should share in that package too.”

Williams made his remarks in the wake of complaints last week by golfer Tiger Woods about marketing rights. Woods didn’t rule out leaving the PGA Tour if the issue isn’t resolved.

Speaking from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the family lives, Williams said he wants an equal partnership with the WTA. If the issue isn’t addressed soon, he said, his daughters might skip tournaments they would otherwise play.

“They might do a slowdown here and there,” he said.

The impact the Williams sisters have made in tennis is comparable to Woods’ effect on golf, Richard Williams said.

“I look at it as being exactly similar in the exposure they bring, the tickets, the money they generate,” he said.

“Any place Venus and Serena go, they sell out everything, even if they play doubles. No one has been able to sell out a doubles match before.”

Bart McGuire, chief executive officer of the WTA Tour, responded by saying all players share in the revenue generated by the tour.

“The WTA is a not-for-profit organization, with the tour’s share of revenues being used for overall tour operations and the day-to-day running of the tour,” he said in a statement.

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In a dominating performance, Martina Hingis of Switzerland breezed into the quarterfinals of the $2-million Chase Championships and sent Julie Halard-Decugis of France into apparent retirement.

“I stop everything,” Halard-Decugis, 30, said after losing, 6-2, 6-3, in the season-ending tournament at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “This is the last match of my career.”

Anna Kournikova won the final four games to defeat Jennifer Capriati, 6-4, 6-4, for the Russian’s first victory in three trips to the season-ending tournament.

Earlier, Amanda Coetzer of South Africa routed eighth-seeded Chanda Rubin, 6-2, 6-1.

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Unable to recover from a hip injury, sixth-seeded Andre Agassi withdrew from the Paris Masters and headed home--the second consecutive week he has pulled out of a tournament.

He withdrew the same day Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil surged through a second-set tiebreaker to beat Chris Woodruff, 6-3, 7-6 (0), in the second round.

In first-round play, Jan-Michael Gambill advanced when Andrei Pavel of Romania quit in the first set.

Olympics

Attorneys told Salt Lake Olympic bid officials to keep their records vague to protect the committee from lawsuits, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The imprecise records could undermine the usefulness of the minutes in the investigation into the bribery scandal surrounding the 2002 Winter Games.

Three-time Olympian Randy Will has a concussion and blurred vision from a bobsled accident he says never should have happened.

Will was piloting a bobsled with three passengers as part of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s $175-per-passenger ride program Saturday. Traveling at 50 mph, he crashed into two boards left hanging over the track.

Miscellany

Norway’s Bjoern Daehlie, who has won more medals than any Winter Olympic athlete, will sit out most of the cross-country ski season for the second consecutive year because of a back injury. . . . Johnny Campbell of San Clemente and Dan Smith of Riverside were the top finishers in the Tecate SCORE Baja 2000 off-road race, run through the rugged desert terrain of the Baja California peninsula. . . . Myanmar withdrew from the qualifying rounds of the 2002 World Cup without giving a reason to soccer’s governing body.

International doping authorities agreed to help oversee testing of American track athletes.

World Anti-Doping Agency Chairman Dick Pound said it would rely on the newly formed U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to handle the testing, which would be overseen by WADA.

Abercrombie, a champion pacer and sire of winners of more than $130 million, died at 25 at Lexington, Ky. Abercrombie was horse of the year in 1978 and inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame last year. . . . Olympic sailing medalists Mark Reynolds, JJ Isler and Pease Glaser will be among honored guests at a public reception for West Coast members of the U.S. Olympic sailing team Saturday night at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach. . . . Ed O’Bannon and Toby Bailey, standouts on UCLA’s 1995 national championship team, have signed with the Los Angeles Stars of the new American Basketball Assn., which begins play Dec. 26.