Tennis's soap opera

RICHARD SMITH/NEWSMAKERS Venus and Serena Williams and their father, Richard, have continued to serve as sources of controversy within the WTA.

For the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), its fans, and the media, the sport itself is apparently not enough. Drama and intrigue must be involved (or created) to enhance the experience of professional tennis—and so we have the current obsession with the Williams sisters, their possible manipulation of the WTA Tour, their probable sibling rivalry, and their definite media magnetism.

Venus and Serena Williams were slated to play against each other in the semifinals of the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament on Thurs., Mar. 15, and a huge crowd gathered in anticipation of an intense and emotional battle between the two young tennis stars. Five minutes before the start of the first game, Venus notified tournament officials of a knee injury and withdrew from the competition. Her sister, who got a pass to the finals, went on to defeat the 17-year-old Belgian Kim Clijsters, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

The jeers and taunts aimed at Serena throughout the final match of the Master's Series only fazed her in the first three games. The crowd of 16,000 began booing as soon as Serena took the court, then booed again when she walked over to her father and sister after the match. "You guys were a little tough on me today," Serena said as she accepted the $330,000 winner's check. Richard Williams, father of the Williams sisters, was more blunt and less forgiving. "When Venus and I were walking down the stairs to our seats, people kept calling me nigger," he told USA Today. "One guy said, `I wish it was '75; we'd skin you alive.' I had trouble holding back tears. I think Indian Wells disgraced America."

Such vicious taunts are unprecedented from the usually polite and subdued tennis set, even given the inordinate amount of negative attention the Williams family has been drawing. Richard Williams has always been a lightning rod for the media, alternately criticized for his gauche courtside conduct, his love of the media spotlight, and his exploitation of his daughters' careers. But after the Indian Wells debacle, a deeper and more contemptible issue bubbled to the pristine grass surface of the WTA Tour. Fans, the media, and even fellow comp-etitors began accusing Venus of ducking matches, including last year's Wimbledon semifinal, and Richard Williams of predetermining his daughters' competitions.

The charges are impossible to prove short of locker room transcripts (à la Watergate) but the taint on the family, the WTA, and the sport itself is difficult to wipe away. Bart McGuire, CEO of the WTA Tour, immediately denied the charge, saying that he talked with tour trainers and found Venus' injury to be legitimate. "They all just absolutely dismiss the notion that there's anything untoward going on in their matches or that anyone could control their matches," McGuire said. "I believe that." But the rest of the tennis world does not. After losing her quarterfinal match against Venus earlier in the week, Elena Dementieva said Richard Williams would determine which sister would win their semifinal. "I don't know what Richard thinks about it," she said. "I think he will decide who's going to win."

What exactly is behind these allegations, which, if taken up a notch, could mean the end of Venus and Serena's careers? Could it simply be, as Richard Williams claims, the media fueling spectator hostility and jealousy from the other players? Is it the prim and proper tennis world's unbuttoned and uncuffed reaction to the family's prima donna status? Or is it just the fact that the Williams sisters aren't putting on a good show?

Venus and Serena are best friends, and despite assurances that they have no problems playing each other—everyone from their father to their former coach seems to think that the sisters have no problem laying everything on the line to seize the highest prizes from each other—there must be a psychological tick when the Venus faces Serena across the net. Their father discouraged such matches when they were growing up, and the quality of their five showdowns as professionals, all heavily hyped, has been uniformly poor.

WTA officials and the media have suggested that the Williams sisters play against each other with increased frequency and publicity in order to dispel the current stream of aspersions; but with every flubbed forehand and errant overhead called into question, the pressures of professional and personal competition would do more to ruin these tennis stars' games than a lifetime of tennis elbow and tendonitis. There doesn't seem to be a break in sight for these talented athletes, who have to face the demands of the drama-hungry media, fans, and officials, as well as their complex family dynamic.

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