Short Note: Serena Faces Yet Another Racist French Open Slight, Loses In Quarterfinals
June 3, 2009 by dwil
Today Serena Williams is playing Svetlana Kuznetsova in her continuing pursuit of an 11th Grand Slam tournament win. The Fend Federation, which puts on the event, is responsible for showing up to matches involving top or all-time great players, which Serena is both. While Serena is in her third set, Roger Federer and French player Gael Monfils took the court for their quarterfinal match. Understandably the reserve box for the Federation is full. Yet the box for the Federation at Serena’s match is almost completely empty. with only two matches of import on the Roland Garros grounds, there is literally no excuse for the reserve boxes on both courts to be full.
Additionally, the Kuznetsova-Wiliams is the featured women’s match of the day, yet it was played on the Suzanne Lenglen Court. Meantime the Samantha Stosur-Sorana cirstea match, in which Stosur wiped out Cirstea 6-1, 6-3, was played on the Phillipe Chatrier court, or the main center court at Roland Garros. Lenglen is by far the slowest of the two courts, providing Kuznetsova the best possible opportunity to pull off the upset. Svetlana is an accomplished clay court player and is far more comfortable than is Williams on the red clay. Had the match been played on Chatrier the Roland Garros center court, Kuznetsova would have a far more difficult time handling the poser of Serena’s serves and groundstokes.
While some may question putting Serena on a court where she has a clear advantage, it is the nature of tennis where the higher seed is always afforded as many advantages as possible over a lower-ranked player (like home court advantage in other sports).
That Williams was forced to play on Lenglen is yet another sign of the Fench’s continuing racism being directed the Williams’ way.
And Williams lost this quarterfinals match, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 7-5 on a court where Kuznetsova reached up to 25% more groundstrokes Williams hit than she would have if the match was played on the far quicker clay of Chatrier.
That’s a very interesting set of circumstances. It sounds like when the syndicate orders a hit and invites their “target” out to a new and unaccustomed location. At the last minute, they all cancel and the unsuspecting guest of honor gets plugged in the dome…straight Marseille gangsta style.
I blame it all on Martel and Descartes.
Thank you, Dwil. Thank you. At this point in my fan worship — I can’t understand why th Williams family jsut doesn’t boycott that Joint. Last year, Chanda Rubin was doing courtside commentary. When the booth went to her, she said that it was very hard for the t.v. audience to hear all the yelling and talking going on while Serena was serving. She said it was unbelievabe — and that the crowd was disruptive when Serena was serving and making comments. When she sent it back to the booth, John McEnroe said with a chuckle, “Well she just better get used to it. That’s how it is when you’re not the underdog.” What a fucking asshole. He really didn’t have a clue — a black person would not have said that and would have recognized th crowd behavior for what it was. I hate when they play the French Open. That said — Serena is so bad that she actually served at 4-3 and 40 love but got tight. She was about to beat Sveta — no telling why she got tight. But that’s how good she is — about to beat a top player on a surface which is her worse and while she’s not playing well. Also, tennis needs some diversity in the booth. Those assholes are out of control when they call Venus’ or Serena’s matches. Anyone interested in a slightly kicked-in t.v.?
Couldn’t agree more Grace.
Thanks Dwil for writing this.
I swear Venus and Serena parents raised some strong and beautiful daughters.
Man I don’t know how they put up with this stuff.
I almost wish they would just retire, because I know that stuff has to be eating those girls up in the inside.
Those sistas have been dealing with this crap since they were kids.
Like I always say them euros can get just as down and dirty as the folks in the states when it comes to racism. They can act and pretend that race doesn’t matter over there………..but it sure as he11 does matter over there. They are just good at denying it.
Hi, first off let me state that I’ve no doubt the Williams sisters have been harassed by both fans and other players, and moreover that the WTA has consistently acted in ways that demonstrate their (probably tacit/ unconscious) complicity. Cases in point Indian Wells and the complete inaction, continuing disregard of cheating against especially Serena Williams, etc. However, I wouldn’t jump to conclusion as to the hostile reactions by the Paris crowd. They have been so consistently boorish, hostile, vicious, and unsporting that it would be difficult to say they are motivated entirely by racism. I am not denying that racism is a factor exclusively, nor do I think that’s what the article and the posters are suggesting, but McEnroe does have a point when he says that underdogs get such a treatment in Roland Garros. I still remember the way they got on the 18 year old (!) Martina Hingis back in 99 or 98. She was by no means a sympathetic character, but she was still a teenage girl, but they tore her apart like she was a sacrificial lamb. It seems to me the Paris crowd is like the ancient Roman crowd that just wants to see blood, and if that should come from a black woman then that’s just a bonus.
Origin, I don’t think white French are any good at denying their racism. Sure didn’t have shit to say in fall 2005. I think the globally Eurocentric media and academe just has an easier time viewing France’s racism as a question of French culture vs. multiculturalism or (white) citizens vs. immigrants, completely and fundamentally ignoring the centrality of Haiti/San Domingue, Algeria, Senegal, Martinique etc. in creating a French culture that is racist at its core.
haven’t been around in a while, but i knew dwil would have some good stuff up on this and def did not disapoint.
cosign grace – i wish venus and serena would say f the french open – we continually get treated horribly there and are subjected to racist hostility, cheating, completely disrespectful treatment, etc.
however, the first thing out of a lot of asses mouths will no doubt be how they are over reacting and what poor sportsmanship they are showing.
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