What Have we Learned from the Williams' Boycott of Indian Wells?

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What Have we Learned from the Williams' Boycott of Indian Wells?

By Chris Oddo

(March 16, 2013) -- After a difficult day of withdrawals on the women's side at Indian Wells Thursday, a day that saw two top players pull out of their quarterfinal matches, leaving fans with nothing to do but drink Corona's and sit on their hands, I found myself wondering about how these last-minute withdrawals were different from that fateful last-second withdrawal that led to the Williams Sisters boycott of Indian Wells.

It's nothing out of the ordinary for players to withdraw from matches at the eleventh hour. And neither Samantha Stosur or Victoria Azarenka were grilled at all about the fact that they left the tournament, ticket-holders, TV viewers and sponsors in a bind when they decided that they weren't up to performing.

Nor were their coaches lambasted or their families showered with insults.

It's not shocking, nor should it be considered an act of tennis treason, because in a professional sport that features individuals (which rules out substitutions, unfortunately) we all know and understand that the athletes have to weigh the advantages of playing and risking further injury against the advantages of pulling out and resting. Health is on the line, careers are on the line, reputations are on the line, and sometimes prudence is the best answer.

So when a player like Victoria Azarenka or Samantha Stosur says she's hurting--has been trying to give it a go, but it's just not working--we take her at face value. Of course it helps if you do like Victoria Azarenka and have a nice cry on the practice courts while limping around, but nowhere in the manual of last-second pullouts does it say that this is a requirement.

Then why, you might wonder, didn't the people of Indian Wells not give Venus Williams that same benefit of the doubt when she announced that she could not go on that fateful day in 2001?

The benefit of doubt has always been the default for all the reasons stated above, and it continues to be today, but something about Venus Williams' withdrawal sparked a contemptuous and highly suspicious maelstrom of mistrust. Why? You could blame the media, who took Elena Dementieva's comments about how Richard Williams decides which sister wins when they play and ran with them, and you could blame Venus and Richard, for not taking the time to elaborate on Venus's injury (if they'd have only headed out to the practice court and orchestrated a limp and a cry), or you could blame the combination of them, the perfect storm.

But how do you account for the cascading boos for Serena (she didn't withdraw, she stuck around and won the tournament) in her own back yard, and the ugly treatment of Richard and Venus as they entered the stadium to cheer her on? Simply put, the Williamses, the family that is largely responsible for keeping American tennis on the map in the last 15 years (you'd need extra fingers and toes to count the Grand Slam titles and gold medals they've claimed for the stars and stripes), were treated with such disdain and such disrespect, that their only logical endpoint in the aftermath of it all was to boycott Indian Wells.

Were racial insults hurled at Richard as he and Venus walked to their seats? Let me take this one step further, and ask: does it really matter? If Richard says he heard racial taunts then he did hear racial taunts, so the man should be given an apology rather than doubted in this case. Any other response to Williams’ claims is adding fuel to the fire.

I'll not argue that Richard can be an antagonistic character, and that he doesn't always play nice with the media. But I will argue that he and his daughter, one of the brightest American stars to ever play the game (just 20 at the time, mind you, and taught from a young age to put the racquet down if her body didn't feel right), with a bright, beautiful career in front of her, deserved the benefit of the doubt. And when they didn't get that, at the very least they should have been left alone to watch Serena in peace. Not heckled, booed, and cursed at as was the case.

The crowd's venomous reaction to their presence, fueled by incendiary media reports, simply can't be overlooked. And the mistrust of the Williams sisters, even after all they've done for tennis in America, continues to this day as reputable journalists use the power of the pen to marginalize the trauma that they suffered, instead calling for them to suck it up and come back for the good of the fans that taunted them in the first place.

I too, feel that it would be great to have them back at Indian Wells, but not until Indian Wells gets down on its knees and admits that it was wrong. Because it was. Watch the damn tape and tell me it wasn't.

I've always been a person that loves a happy ending, and for years I've imagined that one of the higher-ups at Indian Wells would be big enough to open the door for some negotiations, some forgiveness, anything. I thought that Larry Ellison had a huge opportunity, when he took over the event in 2009, to bridge the gap. I hoped that he would summon his staff and get them to finally make a proper apology to the Williamses. 'Just make it happen, Ellison,' I thought. 'Hold off on the Hawk-Eye and your prize money and be a decent human!' Even if it didn't lure them back to the event, it would open up a dialogue, and perhaps put us on the road to recovery.

Instead, the silence lingers. The country, and the world, thank goodness, continues to evolve. I'm confident that 12 years after the incident, the same vitriol wouldn't flow in the same situation, and I'm confident that tennis is embracing its diversity and its role as leader in the realm of global sports.

But I'm not so pleased that Indian Wells doesn't want to acknowledge its role in the incident that has left California's biggest tournament without its two biggest homegrown stars for 12 years running, and take this opportunity to help us all heal a little bit. It shouldn't be up to the Williamses. They didn't do anything wrong, and they should never come back unless they feel wanted. I repeat: Watch the tape.

What should happen is that Indian Wells should make a sincere, heartfelt apology to the Williams family and to all the paying customers who have filled the coffers of a tournament that has offered them a women's draw without Venus or Serena.

Even if the Williams sisters never do come back to Indian Wells, the gesture would make a difference. And it sure beats the alternative, which is harboring resentment, deflecting culpability, and missing out on a huge opportunity to make a wrong right.

So, to answer my original question: We apparently haven’t learned anything from the Williams Sisters boycott of Indian Wells. But that doesn’t mean the case is hopeless. There is still time, and goodwill has no expiration date.

(Photo Credit: AP)