They Should be Ashamed

Until we discussed it in class, I had never heard about the Indian Wells situation. To be truthful, I didn't even know there was a tennis event called it or for the fact that it was located in California. After reading about what transpired, I must say this is a very tragic event. Now I'm not going to lie, but if I was at the event and was expecting a historic match between two talented sisters, I would too be a little pissed off to find out that they had cancelled the match at the last moment. That to me is uncalled for. I could see informing the fans a couple of hours ahead of time. However, when the staff member didn't announce that Venus wasn't competiting, I was shocked. It is your job to report things of this nature and they should have done that. People though are going to look at the big picture. And they assume Venus backed out in the last minutes before the match. Then within the next couple of days fans errupted when Venus showed up to watch Serena play in the finals. Booing and saying racial comments to Venus and her father as they walked down to there seats. Making the whole arena very tense and defiantly affecting Serena's game for the first several matches.

During the summer I experienced something similar to this. I was at a Triple-A baseball game where Manny was getting in some practice games with the Albuquerque Isotopes. First off, I went to the game the night before and people cheered and cheered when he hit the field. But, as soon as he struck out in his first at-bat, people booed him for several minutes. Then the next night when it was raining before the game, fans were informed he was not going to play. The big problem with this is the stadium was soldout to see Manny. However, to not risk injury, he sat out of a pointless minior league baseball game. People started yelling horrible racial comments and just keep making fun of him the entire night. What the fans didn't realize was it wasn't his choice to sit out. The Los Angeles Dodgers have millions of dollars invested in this player and they wee the one's who decided whether he was going to play or not. People don't see it that way and see it as the player choice to not play. Just like Venus's situation. People have to realize she could have gotten seriously injured and it's not worth killing your career for one match. The fans at Indian Wells should be ashamed. The way they reaccted was very unmature and alot of those people need to look themselves in the mirror and realize they are not perfect either. I felt bad for the William's sisters. And it obviously affected Serena's game because she was worried about Venus. But, the true athlete that Serena is she proved that she was one of the best tennis players and I don't think most athletes could have handle the situation like she did at such a young age. Overall, I support there reasoning for never going back to Indian Wells.

If you were not able to see what happen, he is a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcUcTMdn4dE&feature=related