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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Wednesday, March 28 |
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| Hingis calls claims of racism 'nonsense' Reuters | |||
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Richard Williams' claims of racism directed at his daughters Venus and Serena during a recent tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., are "nonsense," Martina Hingis said Monday.
Hingis, the world's top-ranked player on the women's circuit, weighed into the Williams controversy
after reaching the quarterfinals of the Ericsson Open on Monday
night.
"I definitely don't feel there is racism on the tour," Hingis said. "I mean, it's a very international sport.
"Maybe (by being) black, they have a lot of other advantages because they can always say it's racism or something
like that, and it's not the case at all," she added.
"Not from my standpoint. I don't care who is on the other
side, I treat them with respect."
Williams said racism – and not Venus' decision to pull out of her semifinal against Serena at the last minute – was
responsible for the crowd's hostile reaction at the Indian Wells tournament 10 days ago.
Serena was jeered and booed throughout her victory over
Belgium's Kim Clijsters in the final.
Richard Williams said when he and Venus were walking to
their stadium seats to watch that match "people kept calling me
n-----."
"I don't think things have changed. I just think they're
more camouflaged and covered up," he said.
"If things had changed, when I was walking down those steps
that guy wouldn't have called me a n-----.
"He said that if this was 1975 ... n-----, I would skin you
alive. And at that point I turned to walk over there then I
remembered what my mom had always taught me, to be peaceful if
it's possible and I tried my best to be peaceful.
"The boos that went on there and the way they (the crowd)
treated this family and especially my 19-year-old daughter out
there ... it was all that I could do to keep from crying."
Referring to the racial taunting, Indian Wells tournament director Charlie Pasarell said: "If Richard said
someone yelled something, maybe they did, but I know that's not Indian Wells people."
The head of the WTA Tour said he was
surprised to learn of Richard Williams' allegations.
Bart McGuire, the tour's chief executive officer, said Richard
Williams made no mention of any racial slurs when they discussed
the booing, which occurred at the tournament final.
"If slurs were made, that would indeed be very disturbing,"
McGuire said in a statement Tuesday. He said he was confident that
"if individual fans at Indian Wells made inappropriate remarks,
that does not reflect the tour's views or those of the tournaments
or the tennis community overall."
McGuire said he still believes the boos were based on the
misperception that Venus Williams withdrew before the semifinal
because she didn't want to play her sister, Serena.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |
ALSO SEE Richard Williams alleges racist crowd at Indian Wells Serena Williams reaches Ericsson Open quarters AUDIO/VIDEO   Richard Williams discusses the treatment his family received at Indian Wells.RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1  Patrick McEnroe on Venus Williams withdrawing from her semifinal match with her sister.wav: 4296 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 ESPN's Pam Shriver offers her perspective of the Williams' sisters controversy.wav: 2347 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |
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