The sages insisted that not much would happen in the woman’s tournament at Wimbledon – Serena and Sharapova weren’t even in the draw. It’s said a tournament really needs a week or so before it gets really gets intriguing. Purist sportswriters insist nothing really happens in press conferences – why waste your time?
All that was swept away within five hours of the start of this year’s Wimbledon. Then again, this Grand Slam takes a curious pleasure in fooling us. Just when all seems so sedate and proper, “Wham!” – Wimbledon smacks you right between the eyes with a hefty punch of high emotion.
Today, it wasn’t about the Aussie upset artist Nick Kyrgios or French Open finalist Stan Wawrinka, who are already heading home. And it didn’t have anything to do with an appealing stabbing victim – two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova quickly added another chapter to her warm and wonderful comeback story. Rather, it was about Venus Williams – an inward, private woman who, when she is not skipping out on press conferences, is a master at deflecting dicey press questions.
But not today.
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Sports has had many a famous press conference. Muhammed Ali turned them into entertainment art form. (He said, “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”) Mike Tyson’s rants reduced pressers to chaotic happenings. A repentant Tiger Woods gave us an anguished 13 minute mea culpa when he admitted his infidelity. The NFL’s Mawshawn Lynch stiffed the Super Bowl press corps with deadpan responses.
In tennis, Arthur Ashe announced at a New York press conference that he was HIV positive. Billie Jean King explained that she was gay. John McEnroe returned from a six-month sabbatical with an endless, intensely therapeutic presser. Andy Roddick announced his retirement before the US Open press corps. Caroline Wozniacki fooled Melbourne writers with her fake news story that she had been accosted by a kangaroo. Maria Sharapova announced that she’d been suspended due to drugs. And famously, there was the most emotional tennis presser of all time – the post-adolescent Jennifer Capriati was reduced to tears at the 1999 US Open. But in my almost 40 years of covering tennis there has been nothing like today’s presser with Venus.
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Wimbledon is famous for its quiet. But today, in Wimbledon’s classy interview room, there was a silence that shouted loud like little else in sports history. Never, in my four decades of covering pro tennis, have I seen a press conference quite like this.
Everyone in the press corps knew that Florida police had said that Venus was at fault in a fatal car accident. But, at first, the questions at her press conference were more about the level of play of her obscure foe, Elise Mertens, and whether officials had forced her to change out of her pink bra.
Then, after much internal debate, we decided to go for it and delicately framed a question. We noted that she’d had a great run to the finals in Melbourne and she’d often spoken of how her life was now so good and her love of tennis so deep. We continued, asking whether she could talk about how life sometimes serves up inexplicable changes, and pitches you curve balls, and how she was dealing with the tragic incident.
She replied, “Life – you can’t prepare for everything. I prepared for a lot of matches [and have] tried to get ready for whatever my opponent will throw [at me.] But you can’t prepare for everything.”
Then again, it seems that thirty-something Venus has faced just about everything in her memorable life: a howling racist crowd, a sister (Yetunde) who was murdered, another sister (Serena) who almost died due to an aneurism, and Venus herself having to deal with a debilitating disease, Sgorgens Syndrome.
So we asked, “Do you think having gone through all the things you have…that will help you deal with this situation?”
She replied, “I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. That’s all I can say. That’s what I’ve learned.”
The New York Times reporter then said, “I saw that you wrote on your Facebook some very heartfelt words about the accident. [She said she was “devastated and heartbroken.”] Is there anything else you want to say about the accident?”
She responded and confided, “There are really no words to describe, like, how devastating and – yeah. I’m completely speechless. It’s just – yeah, I mean, I’m just …”
The great champion paused and began to choke up. A stillness descended. Her eyes began to tear. Her head slumped and went limp onto her hand. The grand lady – who after winning the semis in Melbourne twirled and shimmied, giving us an ecstatic victory dance for the ages – now seemed frozen. Time stopped. She twitched and played with her hair. She rolled her eyes and gazed to the ceiling. One sensed she was enveloped by sorrow and flooded with grief. The press moderator intervened, saying Venus would not be able to talk about the incident.
Many have noted Venus’ flowing backhand. Today the world noted that her tears flowed. She wiped them away and whispered to the moderator, “Maybe I should go.”
She left the press room, then just minutes later, bravely returned to answer a few simple questions. But there was little that was simple about the presser. It was a complex exchange that only amplified the complexity of life.
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We like our stories simple and straightforward – easy and free of any nasty, hard-to-digest twists.
And the legend of Venus Williams seemed a simple enough feel-good story – glorious redemption. You know the tale. The father of an African-American prodigy told the world that his daughters would revolutionize tennis. And indeed, Venus burst onto the white scene, quickly won an array of titles, became No. 1, overcame racism, fought for equal prize money and against anti-semitism and overcame a draining malady. All the while, she collected a shelf-full of Olympic Gold, played the uncomplaining role of older sister as Serena streaked to worldwide glory and shocked us, at the ripe old age of 36, by reaching the 2017 Aussie Open final. Today, Venus, a five-time Wimbledon champ, entered her 20th Wimbledon – as the oldest player in the woman’s draw.
All this year, Venus seemed to express a deep, inspiring serenity. She glowed and told us of her good, simple life. She spoke of the joys of owning a dog, of playing the sport she loved and the jolly prospects of becoming an aunt.
Then the news broke. The Palm Beach Gardens Florida police reported that she was at fault in a June 9th car accident that two weeks later resulted in the death of a 78-year old man, Richard Barson. Witnesses said Williams ran a red light, but her attorney insisted that she entered the intersection on a green light and that she was only going 5 mph. Her lawyer added that she hadn’t been cited or charged and that police said she wasn’t under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But it was noted that, in 2011, she was cited by Palm Beach police for driving without proof of insurance and, in 2013, for driving with a suspended license.
Today in a London interview room, a hundred grizzled reporters seemed suspended in a state of disbelief. A legend was reduced to tears. One sensed that the tennis world was sending her all their sympathy. After all, one of the greatest woman in sports history would now be facing a monumental battle – not on a court for tennis but in a court of law.
