Inside Tennis Editor and Publisher Bill Simons spoke with BNP Paribas CEO Ray Moore about Serena Williams’ return to the tournament, how it happened, and her remarkable growth over the years:
This is quite stunning news about Serena. What was your reaction?
I was elated. Carried away—it was fantastic. Still is—I’m still excited, still haven’t come down. It’s great news for us.
What do you think it will mean? She’s Serena, the No. 1 player of our era and possibly of all history. Now she’s coming back home, so to speak. What’s your feeling?
My feeling is genuine excitement and acceptance. It seems that Serena has matured unbelievably, and by unbelievably I mean unbelievably well. She’s evolved. She’s 33, and who knows how much longer she’ll play? She’s embraced a great nonprofit charitable cause. Maybe she’ll follow in the footsteps of someone like Arthur [Ashe].
I had a couple of conversations with her prior to this event taking place. I talked with her in November and December. We agreed on the last call that she shouldn’t think about it or make any decision until after the Australian Open. Because our entry list closes in the middle weekend of the Australian, there was no pressure on her. If the press like yourself had seen she was entered on the Monday of the second week of the Australian Open, then suddenly the focus becomes different for her.
You know me, I have a concern for this. I asked her early on in the tournament. She turned to Jill [Smoller, Serena’s agent] and asked “Am I entered?” and Jill said, “No.” Then she said, “I like my vacation time.” Right after she won the tournament I saw her coach and friend Patrick [Mouratoglou], who said, “Hey Bill, guess what—she’s going to play Indian Wells.” Then when I personally asked Serena again, she said no. She wanted to handle it her way.
Let me tell you, not only did she handle it her way, she handled it with aplomb. The piece she wrote [for Time, on returning to Indian Wells], which she wrote herself, hit all the right notes, and it’s a very sophisticated piece. It shows clearly the evolution and maturing of a fantastic athlete.
A year ago in Australia I had a long talk with Patrick about this and how it would be a real moment of potential reconciliation. I tried to explain that while Serena has had this absolutely fabulous career, this was something special she could be remembered for in a whole different way, and it would have meaning far beyond the courts. We all mature, but how would you say Serena has grown, specifically?
I’ve said this so many times when people talk to me about racism. I say, “You don’t understand—you have to talk a mile in someone’s shoes. You have to understand what’s happened to them in their life, how their opinions have been shaped.” Unfortunately, the situation here in Indian Wells in 2001 was [an example of] ugly human traits. When it actually happened and the booing was taking place, I turned to the person I was sitting next to and said, “You know, she’s 19, and I cannot imagine a male tennis player ten years older than her handling it the way she is.” I only learned from her letter that she was crying in the dressing room afterward and all the way home.
You said she could go in the footsteps of Arthur Ashe.
In my personal knowledge of players, you have to talk about Arthur and Andre Agassi in the highest terms. There aren’t many like them. Now, I just have a feeling—from talking with her, from her letter, and from her embrace of the Equal Justice Initiative [which seeks legal representation for poor defendants and prisoners denied just treatment]—that when she’s finished playing we haven’t heard the last from her.
What was the process like? Did Serena say she was thinking of playing but was concerned? What happened?
Two years ago, I talked with Stacey Allaster and said, “Stacy, we really have got to find a way to get Serena and Venus back here. How do we do it?” Stacey helped. She put together phone calls. I ended up talking to Serena’s agent Jill Smoler a couple of times. I met Jill here at the tournament in 2013, and put together a meeting with Jill and Larry Ellison and Stacey. It ended with Serena entering the [2014] tournament at the Australian after Nelson Mandela passed away. But there wasn’t any personal contact between Serena and myself, or Larry and Serena. It was only through Jill and people surrounding Serena. We all know what happened then—in the wake of Mandela’s death she said she wanted to embrace forgiveness and to play. At the time, I didn’t quite believe that she would be able to pull it off. I just didn’t get the feeling she was strong enough, or that all the forces surrounding her wouldn’t put obstacles in her way. I think that’s pretty much what happened in 2014 after the Australian.
I just think she wasn’t quite ready emotionally. Now, I have no idea, because I’ve not talked with the family, this is just my summation. In her letter, which I think is very explanatory and descriptive, she says, “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore.” I think that’s a great statement, because she doesn’t. I appreciate and respect that she’s using that mantle of being a great tennis player, maybe the greatest woman of all time. She’s ready. She truly believes in forgiveness and she’s not editorializing on who was right or wrong.
With her initiative, there’s no linkage on our part, although we did speak about things like that. She made her own decision. I am personally in awe, and totally respectful and grateful.
You’re a man of South African heritage who worked very closely with Arthur on issues relating to race. Mandela said that sport has the power to change the world. Serena is just a tennis player at a tennis tournament, but in the context of our real lives do you think this could be an impulse for reconciliation and understanding?
Absolutely. That’s exactly where I think it’s going, and that’s what it’s about. Serena embracing a cause like Equal Justice Initiative, everyone needs to believe in that because there are stories on television every single week about people who have been wrongly imprisoned for years. I think it’s great, and I actually think that this is a rebirth of Serena, who I think will become an advocate for the underprivileged.
Have you given thought on how best to welcome her back?
You know, Bill, we haven’t had time to even digest this, because this was sprung on me last night at home by Jill. At 9 o’clock last night, I was just getting through my first glass of red wine. All I know is that we will now begin to make plans. Certainly she will be welcomed as the true champion she is, and we will try to make her stay here as comfortable as humanly possible.
Did you ever get tired of people like me asking about this issue over the years?
No, I never got tired of it. I just wished that I wasn’t so hapless, in not being able to sit down with Serena and Venus and Richard and Oracene and say, “This is how we feel.” It was a totally helpless feeling, and I really did not enjoy it. With the benefit of hindsight, would it have been better to do that? I believe it would have, but maybe not. Maybe Serena wasn’t ready. Now she’s ready.
