It’s not up there with the Kennedy assassination or UFOs, but the conspiracy theorists are having a right jolly time with Serena Williams’ reported foot injury, which she says required surgery after she stepped with her bared feet on glass at a German restaurant following Wimbledon.
On a web site called terezowens.com, which I’ve never heard of until now, an online reporter suggests that Serena had rhinoplasty (a nose job) and the boot on her right foot was there only to deflect one’s attention from her face.
There’s also the Daily Mail in London, which suggests she skipped the U.S. Open this year not because she was recovering from the operation but because she was still cheesed off about the famous foot fault controversy at the Open in 2009.
Finally, there is Greg Couch, writing for AOL Fanhouse, who bizarrely claims she’s faking all this stuff because she likes the publicity.
OK, let’s see if we can get it straightened out.
For starters, all Sony Ericsson WTA players are required to submit medical verification and/or confirmation, including medical documentation, from a doctor for each injury that involved a tournament withdrawal. Williams complied.
The tour, then, as a matter of policy releases general information about the injury (or illness) and, in fact, will release detailed additional information about the injury and surgery, if an operation took place, but only with the player’s authorization. Williams did not give that.
So, what do we know for sure?
We know that Williams did indeed gash the bottom of her foot on glass. We know she had surgery. We know that she is recovering from the surgery. We suspect she’ll be back on court in time for the WTA Championships in November.
We don’t know if it happened at a restaurant in Germany, why she was in Germany and I’m not sure why we care, except that the alternative answer might be more titillating. We also know that the Williams family is very practiced at feeding reporters a lot of nonsense about their private lives.