‘Hit the Net Like A..’ – 6 Years After Racist Heckling at Indian Wells, Serena Williams Met With an Eerily Similar Fate at Miami Open 2007

When Venus and Serena Williams arrived on the tennis scene towards the end of the 20th century, the sport had little diversity. But then these two underdogs became two of the greatest tennis players of all time. However, that did not stop them from being the targets of heckling and racist slurs even when they were on the court. The value of one victory was significantly undervalued for Serena Williams when she had to go through a racist episode at the Miami Open in 2007.

This was neither the first nor the last time Serena Williams went through something like this. However, the shocking audacity of the perpetrator left Williams running short of words.

Serena Williams was dumbfounded after suffering racist abuse

The 23-time Grand Slam champion has come across multiple such incidences. And though she should not have to cancel out such noises because they should not exist in the first place, Williams had learned to do it. One such incident was when she was competing in the third round against the Czech Lucie Safarova.

Despite winning the match, Williams had to listen to a horrid spectator, who was shamelessly spewing racist abuse at her. As reported by CNN, Williams said, “The guy said, “Hit the net like a N*g*o would,” after the match. This affected her game as she narrated, “I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I had to do a double-take, I think I hit a double fault at that point.”

The staff removed the spectator and handed him over to the police. Williams noticed other people had spotted him too, however, he was still going ahead with it. She said, “Who says these things outside of first grade? At a professional venue, you don’t do that. It was shocking, I couldn’t believe he would stoop to that level.” 

Regretting that she did not say something sooner, she was horrified by how he could continue saying all those things. “It was derogatory. Then every time I missed a shot or serve, he would say, ‘That’s the way to do it’. It was outrageous.” 

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A similar unfortunate incident but on a large scale happened with the Williams sisters at Indian Wells in 2001. The crowd booed them because Venus Williams had withdrawn from a semi-final match against her sister Serena Williams.

Spectators are not the only people against whom Williams has felt discriminated against

The saga of the things and words she had to hear, despite being the most-celebrated tennis player, is long. However, apart from people, Williams felt cornered by the USDA authorities as well.

In 2018, Serena Williams voiced her say on the frequent dope testing that she had to undergo. In 2018, she had undergone the test five times. Consequently, she found it discriminatory and called the authorities out for that. At that point, her ex-boyfriend rapper Common had also shown his support for her.

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