Williams’ Accusation Misses Point

Martina Hingis was booed loudly when she lost her lead, her cool and finally the French Open final match against Steffi Graf two years ago. The fans in Paris booed Hingis to tears, and fans at other tournaments booed her later. Her behavior had been embarrassing and she paid the price.

John McEnroe was booed all the time. Many fans liked McEnroe’s fire and temper but just as many were appalled. So they booed McEnroe.

Jimmy Connors has been booed. So has Andre Agassi.

Goran Ivanisevic has been accused of tanking tennis matches. So has Yevgeny Kafelnikov. They’ve been booed too.

No one accused the booers of being anti-Swiss, anti-American, anti-Croatian or anti-Russian.

Ten days ago, Serena Williams was booed in the final of the Indian Wells Masters Series, a reaction to the withdrawal of her sister, Venus, moments before a highly anticipated and sold-out match between Venus and Serena in the semifinals.

Now Richard Williams not only says about a dozen fans used a racial slur directed at him and Venus as they walked to their seats, he says those were racist boos.

In Monday’s USA Today, in his first extended comments about the controversy his daughters caused at Indian Wells, and a longer-running debate about whether the sisters have been involved in fixing matches when they play each other, Williams could only grab at the excuse of racism.

Those angry fans, many of whom had bought tickets to the semifinal match, weren’t booing because they felt cheated, because they felt used, because they had seen Venus looking pretty darn sound in the quarterfinals. Nope, they’re racists.

Those of us who feel uncomfortable about how Venus, Serena and Richard talk about how hard it is for the sisters to play each other? We who have watched one or the other sister withdraw from tournaments or not play in tournaments the other is in, have seen that each time the sisters do play each other the matches have been terribly played with neither player showcasing her obvious and indisputable talent? We’re all racists.

Richard says so.

Richard gave this interview to a highly respected, veteran tennis writer at USA Today. Doug Smith, the writer, is also African American.

Should we then think that Richard Williams is a racist for ignoring all the white journalists who have tried to contact him? Or is it that Richard spoke to a man he respects and trusts?

All those white fans in the stands at Indian Wells, maybe they should call Richard Williams a racist too. After all, Richard’s African American daughters refused to play tennis for the white spectators, didn’t they?

Of course that’s crazy.

And we could write off Richard Williams as crazy too.

Except that his desperate rationalization of a troubling pattern of behavior by his daughters and his continual hammering on the supposed racism of the tennis tour is dangerous.

In his interview, Williams wondered why Lindsay Davenport wasn’t criticized for pulling out of the Olympics because of an injury.

Here’s why: Davenport had struggled with back problems all summer. She flew all the way to Australia. You think she didn’t want to play? You think she didn’t want to defend her gold medal?

She didn’t wait until the stadium was full, until 10 minutes before the match was to begin to withdraw. She withdrew in time for the next eligible player to enter the draw.

The unfairness of pulling Davenport’s name into this discussion might be construed as racism on Richard Williams’ part.

In the USA Today story, Venus is quoted as saying: “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.”

Racism does exist.

But not in this case.

Does Venus ever wonder, if her sport is so racist, how it is she has a $40-million endorsement deal from Reebok? Do Venus and Serena notice how the stands fill for them all over the world? With white people and Asian people and Latino people? Does Venus appreciate the heartfelt cheering she heard at Wimbledon last year when she beat Davenport? Or that Serena heard when she won the U.S. Open?

Of course racism still exists. But our sporting fields are where racism least exists.

Richard gets all the credit possible for raising two educated, interesting daughters who don’t make tennis the only priority in their lives. But Richard’s attempts to make this a race issue are as wrongheaded as can be.

If Venus and Serena hadn’t talked so much about their dislike of playing each other, if Venus hadn’t played well the day before her match with Serena and if she weren’t playing well again in the very next tournament, if Venus had taken the time to address the crowd, to apologize, to say how much she wanted to play, nobody would have booed.

It is the accumulation of events, not one injury, that raises the suspicion of match fixing. It was the way Serena’s game fell apart against her sister last summer at Wimbledon that prompted the National Enquirer to write about the charge that one Williams was greasing the way for the other.

There is nothing uglier in sports.

And if Venus and Serena want to avoid playing each other until the final, there is a solution.

Venus and Serena can play often enough, and well enough, to be ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the world. If they can’t do that, they’ll have to play each other before the final at times. That’s not racist. It’s sports.

You know what else is sports? Paying customers, when they are cheated, boo. The fans at Indian Wells were cheated.

*

Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com.