Cheating and Racism at Roland Garros: Ahhhh, It Must Be Spring in Paris
May 31, 2009 by dwil
Let me just put it like this: Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez you stinking, little racist, cheating bitch. you know the ball went off your arm, at full speed you could see that it did. When the replays were shown is was apparent that not only did the ball hit your arm first, but it never touched the racket – at all. Instead you said Serena calling you a cheat was a “stupid comment.”
Stupid because it was the truth? Or stupid because Serena busted your slimy ass out? Either way, it is you who is rather illogical – but, then again, so is racism.
Now to Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press: You spineless punk, son of a bitch. For you to write that you could not tell whether or not the ball hit Martinez’s arm first is so fucking disingenuous that I cannot believe you still have a job. but then again the AP is made up of tons of racists like you. And then you have the ballessness to write your game story like Serena created the drama ——— you feckless fuck:
In what seemed to be an effort to protect herself, as much as to try to hit a volley, the left-handed Martinez Sanchez raised her racket, quick as could be. The ball ricocheted back—off her racket? off her arm? off both?—and past Williams. The point was awarded to Martinez Sanchez, giving her the game.
NBC, which televised the match, showed The Associated Press replays in which the ball appears to glance first off Martinez Sanchez’s right forearm, then off her racket, before going over the net. Tennis rules say if a ball touches a player, the point is lost.
What’s this “off her racket” shit, you asshole? You saw the replays… YOU SAW THE REPLAYS. You admitted NBC showed them to you, and you still managed to lead with “off her racket” as if there was a question at all. And don’t try to say it was an accidental choice to list racket before “arm,” as if you suddenly don’t know the power of words and the power of the order in which they are listed, and what effect those words and their order will have on the reader who did not witness the event, or see replays.
Onto Greg Garber of ESPN.com. In baseball, when a good play is made in the field, players will yell out to their teammate, “Way to be.” Garber, way to be – as spineless a son of a bitch as Fendrich, you no-tennis knowing chimp. That’s right, I wrote chimp, with an “i” not chump with a “u:”
“I’m like drama,” Serena Williams said on Saturday, “and I don’t want to be drama.
“I’m like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, drama follows them. I don’t want to be that girl.”
But, undeniably, she is.
Really? Is Serena the cause of the drama? You jerk.
But rather than call a duck a duck, you’ll slough off the overt racism that the Williams sisters have faced on tour or, if you’d like to be politically correct, the wanton cheating that occurs in tennis, onto Serena. Well guess what motherfucker, you just quacked.
But since you watched the replay, too, and saw that the ball hit Sanchez’s arm, why can you not at the very least agree with Williams’ assessment of the Spaniard’s actions on and off the court? You found it within the purview of your work to editorialize and judge Serena, why not do the same with Sanchez?
Might it be because you’re too bitch to do so – might just maybe be, huh? Or did one of your editors just strike your comments about Sanchez from your piece? I don’t think so, not the way you ended your article:
Williams directed Joseph to ask Martinez Sanchez if the ball hit her. He did not.
“I hit that ball rather hard — she knew it,” Williams said. “Be honest. She wouldn’t even look at me. I have no respect for anyone who plays a professional game and doesn’t play professionally.”
Martinez Sanchez, meeting the English-speaking press later, insisted the ball did not hit her.
“No, no,” she said.
Martinez Sanchez was told that Williams believed she cheated.
“I don’t want to comment on this, [it's] a stupid comment.”
One of Williams’ other comments to Joseph: “She better not come to net again.” “Did you hear that?” Williams asked reporters, sounding surprised that on-court microphones had picked it up. “I’m from Compton.”
That set Serena off into a fit of laughter.
Not even Fendrich sunk low enough to add the Compton quote. But you did so you could substantiate your earlier comment about drama and Williams’ connection to it. And of course to show the potential for a Black person to become violent.
To add insult to injury, Garber let chair umpire Emmanuel Joseph off the hook as well:
Actually, it could have been far less interesting if chair umpire Emmanuel Joseph could see clearly — or had the advantage of instant replay.
How about his ears? See, when I read that sentence I realized that you know nothing about tennis – or you are pretending not to. The reason for silence on the court, Garber, is so that players can hear the ball: hear it come off their own racket’ hear it bounce; hear it come off their opponent’s racket; hear it bounce off the court again. The same goes for a chair umpire. This is especially true on clay where, if you pay attention, you can hear the ball hit the nylon-cloth tape outlining the parameters of the court.
And you can differentiate between a ball that hits any portion of a person’s body and their tennis racket.
Joseph, a veteran chair umpire, should have heard the ball hit Sanchez as much as he saw it.
——————————————–
If Sanchez is not at least fined heavily for her cheating – perhaps by having the points she earned at the French Open taken from her – the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) can be said to be as racist as any other organization that does not punish its workers for racist acts toward fellow workers who are minorities.
We already know something is very wrong with the French Open this year as Venus Williams, who Serena said was laying better than she was, was the only top seeded player on either side of draw – men’s or women’s – to be forced to play three days in a row without there being a major rain delay to push play back. The toll the matches took on her was evident when she lost in the third round to Agnes Szavay 6-0, 6-4 and looked as though she was sleep-walking for most of the match. Will the WTA file an official complaint with the French Federation on behalf of Venus? Most likely not.
But some of us go back to the 2003 French Open match with Serena and Justine Henin. Henin claimed she was ready on Williams’ serve and claimed she did not raise her hand to let Williams know this when clearly she did not. Williams, who had missed her first serve at 30-love and 4-2 in the third set. Henin lied blatantly, Serena never recovered, lost the match, and was in tears afterward.
Neither the French Federation nor the WTA ever offered an apology to Williams and they never punished Henin.
Then there is the Venus Williams-Lucie Safarova second round match this year. Safarova of the Czech Republic, like Sanchez, like Henin, is one of “those” WTA players. Those WTA players are the ones who have an open hate for the Williams sisters.
You see, in tennis, in a tough match when a winner is struck by one opponent, or that opponent wins a long point they often exclaim in happiness, clenching their fists in the process. When emoting in that manner, the player looks at the ground or in the stands at their coach or at the fans, in general. However, when expressing extreme dislike of another player, or there is some sort of problem between two players, the emoting player will look directly at their opponent, scream, and clench their fists.
This is exactly what Safarova did to Venus on each important point in the third set of their second round match at the French Open Thursday afternoon in Paris.
And the part about the Czech woman’s act is that she is just one of many women on the WTA Tour who conduct themselves with this nasty, racist, white power-type of hate when facing the sisters.
Safarova was caught on at least a half a dozen occasions screaming at the top of her lungs, clenching her fist until her knuckles turned white and screaming at Venus. A person could be forgiven if, viewing a still image of the Czech with her pale, blue eyes and hateful glare, they confused her with a White person screaming, “Nigger!” at Black people engaging in a peaceful Civil Rights protest n the late 1950s and 1960s.
What is even worse is the moment of the post-match handshake after a Williams sister vanquishes one of “these people.” After all that bluster, all that overt, vile venom they spew, they come to net and can barely look the powerful Black women in their eyes; they glance at a general spot on the Williams sisters’ faces, quickly look down, give the most perfunctory of handshakes as if afraid Black will rub off on them and stain them forever, and walk away.
I am surprised they do not rub their pale hands on their little pleated, street ho cheerleader-look tennis skirts after touching skin with all that melanin.
Now we have Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, a cheat for sure; caught on live, caught on video, caught by her opponent on the Terre Battue of Roland Garros. Caught white-handed.
It is spring in Paris.
It is a mythical time for lovers.
It is very real time for racial hate and sub-human behavior.
Damn bring the fire dwil! Gotta agree with this one. The chick blatantly cheats and they wanna get on Serena for speaking the truth.
I saw the replay on You Tube and I read the article. The ball hit Sanchez, no doubt. I wonder if the guy writing for AP actually saw the replay. If he had, no way would he say the ball appeared to hit her forearm.
Fendrich wrote that the AP was shown the replays – either he, who writes for the AP, saw the replays, or one of his cohorts…. However, I am sure that Fendrich saw them because AP writers do not refer to themselves in first person, hence he would never say, “I saw“, but would say “the AP was shown replays….”
And ESPN’s Garber was apparently able to view them, too.
“We already know something is very wrong with the French Open this year as Venus Williams, who Serena said was laying better than she was, was the only top seeded player on either side of draw – men’s or women’s – to be forced to play three days in a row without there being a major rain delay to push play back. ”
Yep, and correct me if I’m wrong, the unranked Maria Sharapova hasn’t had to play back to back days yet.
If I hear another white person complain about Serena or Venus “not giving the other girl credit for winning” it will be too soon.
Serena got jobbed on that call today. Just like she did against Jennifer Capriati at the U.S. Open a few years back, and again at the French Open with Henin.
If Serena can manage to win the French this year, she needs to buckled down and go ahead and win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Officially a fan, dwil. Great article. Spot on. I still cannot believe that CHEATER Sanchez denied it.
Robert-
Thank you for rising to “Official” status……
Phil-
Serena does have to step up her game, or as Floyd “Money” would say, “Step yo gaaame up!” Consistency and placement are as paramount as power at Roland Garros. Serena has the power and placement, she just needs to avoid the lapses….
ks-
No correction to be had on that matter…..
To all-
On the Tennis Channel today they were talking about Sanchez’s preser and apparently the “That’s a stupid question” remark was repeated by her when she was confronted by reporters who saw the replay!
According to peeps at the Tennis Channel, it went down like this:
Reporter: We saw the replay and the ball clearly hit your arm. What do you have to say?
Sanchez: That’s a stupid question.
And she walked away!
Fucking amazing…..
it’s TENNIS
women’s tennis at that
big deal. she won the match, I didn’t even realize (or care) that this crap was on the TV until it interrupted the baseball highlights.
Thanks, dwil! The churlish animosity directed at the French Open at the Williams Sisters is largely motivated by racism as far as I am concerned. The attitude of the umpires and the crowds seems to provide too many women players, especially ones from eastern European nations, a license to be insulting, albeit in covert ways. Serena’s remarks about Sanchez-Martinez were on target.
Boney answer to racism in sports: misogyny (at least)….
You know Boney, for some odd reason it appears that, recently, most of your responses have devolved into churlish, unthinking, little forays with the goal of starting an argument that has a foundation in illogic: that because the sport is women’s and Serena Williams won the match neither the incident nor the overall acts of racism toward the Williams sisters matter.
That bullshit has no place anywhere other than where the commenters are as unthinking as you are. It certainly has no place here.
Dwil,
What if Venus and Serena Williams were extremely light-skinned, lean women with long, natural flowing straight hair and they were from a nice lily-white suburb and weren’t controversial? Would the tennis “public” i.e. white folks, like them better?
Say for example, you swap Candace Parker with Venus Williams. A black lady with “more traditional” Madison Avenue friendly looks. Hmmmm…… Are white tennis “fans” that hate on the Sisters guilty of “brown-bagging.” I didn’t realize these gals were pledging AKA. I thought we wuz talkin’ ’bout tennis.
Some more SMH material…
Maybe some of them white faux-tennis fans should stick to curling or something!
Ruh-Roh. Monfils just took out the great white hope in straights at the French. And the Frenchies got all hot and bothered while Monfils incited them. I’m feeling some hate coming on from “the tennis establishment.”
Yeah Phil, the Candace look would go over well. Alexandra Stevenson did…. Le Monf only cares that his country-peeps like him —— and they love him….. Now it’s on to Federer, who the French crowd also loves. We’ll see how much better mentally Monfils is and we’ll get to see how much the hope of a 14th slam pressures Fed….
everywhere you look, Serena and Venus have been made out to be some kind of clowns, sore loser/sore winners who aren’t right in the head. This latest story is a prime example of how sad the situation is because hardly anyone wants to take sides with Serena when it is clear that she was right all along.
And i just noticed that Monfils won. I always thought he had a good game, but would fade later into matches. I think he will put up a good fight for roger.
speaking of tennis i ‘attempted’ to play tennis this past sunday and my body is still kind of sore. I was moving around like a robot today. Pretty demanding sport.
Dwil,
If any other women’s player from America other than a Williams sister had someone cheat like that in a Slam, the American press would be all over it. And judging how the American press has been about Lance Armstrong’s battle with French authorities over the doping charges and the Tour de France?
Venus plays three days in a row, Serena’s opponent blatantly cheats in plain sight and the American press says dick? Trust me, even Ashley Harkleroad would be treated better than this.
I hope that Venus and Serena win the remaining Slams this year. Truly do.
Admittedly, I don’t follow tennis all that closely, but aren’t you talking about a single, close shot in a best of 3 set match? Close plays are mis-called in sports on a daily basis, and the player/team that benefits is never expected to correct the ref/umpire; they take their base/point/game and move on.
Maybe that’s different in tennis, but to get from there to calling this woman a “stinking, little cheating, racist bitch” is at least twice as offensive/racist/misogynist as anything she did during the match.
Bad form.