When I returned to Passing Shots, the first thing I noticed is that my thinking has evolved on some subjects. Take my unhinged ranting about Serena Williams, for example. I still find that 09 US Open meltdown deplorable. She should have been disciplined. In retrospect, though, there is something to the sexism charges brought by so many writers. I realized this last year when John McEnroe appeared in several new television commercials for various sponsors. Twenty years after McEnroe retired and he is still making a living from his rage problem. In some ways it’s sad that McEnroe can only get sponsors because of his famous temper tantrums rather than his glorious tennis. But that’s his fault. (I don’t think he’s laughing all the way to the bank either).
I don’t think we will ever see Serena’s outburst featured in a funny commercial. She isn’t going to profit from it. Over the last 18 months there have been some incidents featuring misbehavior and fights between women athletes and each one has been met with hand-wringing by the culture and lots of attention – none of it good. Women play sports with the same intensity and passion that men do. That isn’t always going to be pretty. We still have a little ways to go to accept that simple truth. The majority of female athletes compete with class and grace and the same is true for the men. Both sexes have their bad apples.
Try as I might, I can’t chalk up the entire Serena Meltdown to sexism. Tennis’ attitude toward arguing over line calls and making threats has changed considerably since McEnroe’s heyday. At the end of his career he was, appropriately, defaulted for a tirade. And Serena did directly threaten a lineswoman, which is completely forbidden. Her conduct cannot be dismissed without discipline. The women’s tour, however, gave Serena a slap on the wrist. The WTA should have been as heavily scrutinized as Serena over the incident.
Serena should not be permanently shunned or brow-beaten because of the 09 US Open. It’s over and as usual we have plenty of other Serena issues to discuss. Such as… why the fuck happened to her foot? Why is that injury and all that surrounded it treated like a state secret? Is she practicing now for Wimbledon, as we recently heard, or will she be out for six more months, like we also heard? Did she get plastic surgery? (I don’t care if you think that’s tasteless, when we saw her at the 2010 US Open her entire face had changed).
Controversy will always be part of Serena’s legacy, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Serena Williams on a tennis court. She may yet surprise us.
Passing Shots 
Posted on May 23, 2011
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