Why Serena And Venus Should Stay Away from Indian Wells

Venus and Serena Williams are the elephants not in the room at Indian Wells this year. For the past 12 years they have skipped the tournament in protest over a racist verbal attack launched by fans and brushed aside as just an alleged incident by the tournament organizers. There have been angry calls for the sisters to return. There is evidence however, that the tournament and the ATP, would not do much anything to protect them from another racist attack.

The Williams sisters are making the right decision not return. A recent incident at Indian Wells proves the tournament, the ATP and possibly the people have learned nothing.

Just last year, a fan had to endure a racist verbal barrage. This barrage didn't come from the stands, it came from the court. During an interview with the victim of the attack, Alex Barlow said she would welcome a chance this year to confront her attacker, tour pro, Michael Llodra of France.

“I would say I'm the one who you called an “effen Chinese.”

Barlow and her husband are at the tournament this weekend. They were a happenstance away from a confrontation with the irascible, and dare I say, racist Llodra. He withdrew from his second-round singles match because of an injury.

Alex Barlow

Tournament director Steve Simon is paying for everything. Barlow says it's his way for apologizing, again. “He was the first to apologize,” said Barlow. Llodra has yet to do that, and Simon says he has had no further contact with Llodra. Last year following the incident, he was supposed to personally apologize to Barlow over the phone, but he never called.

“We attempted to facilitate a meeting following the incident at last year’s event, but unfortunately Mr. Llodra was not willing to attend the meeting,” said Simon in an email.
Barlow is not just a fan. She and her husband plan their lives around attending the tournament. Barlow said they have attended the tournament 8 of the last 10 years. They missed two years in that span because Barlow was giving birth, or had just had a child.
“If you love tennis and you live on the west coast, you can't go to New York (for the U.S. Open) every year. The BP Paribus Open in Indian Wells is loosely called the 5^th Grand Slam.
What was Barlow's offense? Why did Llodra go racist? Barlow yelled, “C'mon Ernie,” to Llodra's opponent, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. That's it.
The ATP had a chance to make a statement. Eleven years after Williams sisters left Indian Wells, for good it appears, the ATP had a golden opportunity. It could have levied a heavy fine against Llodra. The ATP could have suspended him. The ATP could have made him take a racial sensitivity class. (Think of how humiliating for him a class like that could have been) The ATP could have made Llodra apologize. The ATP could have made Llodra do all of those things as a condition of continuing to pursue his career.
After all, we're not talking about the top player in the world. Llodra is now ranked number 63 in singles, and makes most of his money playing doubles. Few would have raised a fuss if Llodra was prevented from playing in the next tournament, the Sony Errickson Open. Coming down hard on such a marginal player, wouldn't have hurt tickets sales, or TV ratings and at the same time, the tournament, and the ATP could have shown the Williams sisters and the rest of us who think they were treated poorly, that racially tinged abuse and obvious verbal abuse would not be tolerated.

Llodra was fined $2500. Tournament director Steve Simon couldn't confirm the punishment. “It is reported that he received a $2,500 fine from the ATP.” Should you know Mr. Simon? It is your tournament, and you say, “I feel terrible about the incident that occurred.”

Apparently, not terrible enough to follow the official punishment more closely than the public can from reading a report on the internet.

The people who want the Williams sisters to return now are like the people in Shelby county Alabama who want the Supreme Court to revoke the Voting Rights Act because, the problem has been solved. The BP Paribus Open at Indian Wells will never be the top prestige event until and unless the Williams' decide to return. How can it be when the number one women’s player in the world is healthy but not playing?

Barlow says the worst part of this whole experience wasn't what Llodra said, it was reading all the comments in the sections provided underneath the news articles about the incident.

People wrote things like, “everyone knows that Asians can't be quiet,” and “maybe she is a whore.”

Simon told me the ATP is the only group that can punish a player, but that doesn't mean Simon has to throw up his hands. He said, “we look forward to the day in which Serena and Venus play here in Indian Wells again and they know we would be very happy to have them here.”
The question is would the Williams sisters be happy playing there. Their absence says not yet.