It’s Nothing Like Open-and-Spite Case

For two weeks the media gleefully built up the possibility of an all-Williams U.S. Open final. Before going out for their matches, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport jokingly discuss how at least one of them will have to do something to prevent an all-Williams final. Both the journalists and Serena are actually trying to interpret this as some kind of personal dislike?

Let’s try logic. It’s probably a bit too much to ask the two professional competitors who have traded the No. 1 ranking for three years to tamely step aside so that a Williams sister can have a Grand Slam title and the biggest prize money in women’s tennis.

T.J. BROWN

Marina del Rey

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Serena Williams doesn’t have an answer to why other players don’t like the Williams sisters. I have the simple answer: They lack sportsmanship. Whenever they lose, it’s because they played a bad game, and never because their opponent happened to outplay them. Whenever they win, it’s because they’re the best and nobody can beat them.

Win or lose, the great ones give their opponents credit for having played a great game. It’s called sportsmanship and class, something that Tiger Woods has, that Steffi Graf had, and that’s sorely lacking in the Williams sisters.

ANDY HSIUNG

Santa Monica

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Considering that in tournament wins she is still 0 for her career, isn’t Anna Kournikova the Zippy Chippy of tennis?

DONALD A. WAY

Rancho Palos Verdes