'Tennis is a prejudice game'
2008-03-19 07:24
Bangalore - Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena, unloaded on the "racist" world of tennis in an interview with a small Indian newspaper.
He said his daughters have been victimised in the game by whites.
"Tennis is a prejudice game," he told the Deccan Herald last week while both Venus (quarter-finals) and Serena (winner) played in Bangalore.
"Well, I'm black and I'm prejudiced, very prejudiced. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be.
"But if you get some little white no-good thrasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert, who cannot hit the ball, they (the media) will claim this is great."
The Williams pair are boycotting this week's Indian Wells Masters in California, as they have done since an incident of crowd booing in 2001. At the time, the Williams family called the incident racist and have never returned to the event.
Their stand against the event looks to be under fire from 2009, when new WTA rules will force all eligible players to front up for big events or face heavy fines and suspensions.
The Williams sisters own 14 Grand Slam singles titles between them, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2007.
"If someone else was No 1, it was good for tennis, if it was blacks, it was not. I think it was ridiculous what they did to my two girls," said Williams. "The best players are in the ghetto here in India and in the ghetto in Compton (California)."
Williams also lashed out at former players, including Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe and Vijay Amritraj.
"You go spend 20 years playing tennis and another 20 years announcing tennis. That is 40 years of your life. You mean, you never learned anything else?"
- SAPA