By Blair Henley
There’s no denying that Venus and Serena Williams are the faces of American women’s tennis.
When a freak foot injury forced Serena to pull out of this year’s U.S. Open, the tournament’s directors and sponsors immediately started calculating the financial impact. The absence of either one of the sisters means less fan interest and therefore less dough for everyone involved, so when the girls’ outspoken father, Richard, claimed in a recent New York Times interview that the United States Tennis Association (USTA) doesn’t “want another Venus or Serena showing up,” the needle on my nonsense meter almost spun into orbit.
When the Williams sisters burst onto the scene in the late 90’s with their beaded hair and brash attitudes, they shattered the concept of tennis as a country club sport for wealthy white people. Many assumed more African American tennis players would follow in their footsteps, but that hasn’t been the case. Richard Williams says that’s because “the system” is blocking them; preventing the rise of a new African American star.
There was certainly no obvious blockage when it came to the advancement of his own daughters. When the Williams family moved from Compton, California to South Florida in the early 90’s, coaches and their tennis academies were tripping over themselves to offer their services for free, hoping to reap the financial rewards once the girls realized their potential. When they started playing professional tournaments, they relied on wildcards given to them by the USTA (i.e. “the system”) for entry because they played few, if any, qualifiers before turning pro.
Their achievements have generated more interest for the women’s tour, more fan attendance at tournaments and more viewers for televised matches. So given the number of people who have profited from the Williams’ success, who benefits from a conspiratorial effort to keep other African-American players from reaching their potential?
It’s not the USTA, that’s for sure. Unlike the U.S. Golf Association, which acts as a governing body and little else, the USTA has poured millions of dollars into building its own player development program that houses, trains, and provides financial assistance to young American talent. They would nurture purple martian munchkins if it meant their dollars were successfully producing champions (which in turn would mean more dollars for everyone). Williams may say the organization has gone out of its way to quash any possibility of a larger black presence in the game, but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
The USTA has bent over backward to bring the game of tennis to a larger audience. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, the number of children ages 6-17 playing tennis jumped to 9.5 million from 6.8 million between 2006 and 2009. Much of that growth is thanks to the USTA’s philanthropic entity called USTA Serves, which has donated over $10 million to programs that introduce tennis into the lives of underprivileged children, most in the inner city. In addition, the USTA has developed a Multicultural Participation Committee and hosts annual training camps “to ensure that no player is left behind due to cultural dissimilarities.” Everyone in the tennis industry profits from greater participation.
Williams said later in his interview that he and his daughters were “picked on from the start,” and though he didn’t clarify who was doing the picking, he went on to say that it was all a ploy “to discourage little black girls and black boys so they won’t take over tennis like they did football and basketball and baseball.”
Given the billions in revenue made during an NBA or NFL season, it doesn’t seem like a high percentage of African American athletes is a terrible thing. As for baseball, well, Richard might need to check his stats. But even if blacks did dominate America’s pastime, it’s doubtful we’d be seeing empty stadiums as a result. Look at Michael Jordan or pre-scandal Tiger or pre-Miami Lebron – fans of every race embraced them. The same would happen if the U.S. were to produce a new African American tennis star.
There’s no doubt that the first black tennis players like Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe fought a long and difficult battle to break through the old color barrier, and it would be naïve to think that racial discrimination has been eradicated completely in the country club culture. But in the world of professional tennis, fans and those who profit from the game would certainly welcome any player who would represent their country well.
Richard Williams and those who agree with him seem to be overlooking the fact that financial success in America trumps just about every type of bias imaginable. Even if the USTA did fear a minority infiltration of the game, it would not for an instant supersede the desire to cash in on the fame of their new stars. If African American tennis hopefuls let their rackets do the talking (i.e. win some matches), the red carpet at next year’s U.S. Open would be rolled out in a New York minute.