In the wake of Serena Williams winning her 21st grand slam and being the current holder of all four grand slams (although not in the same calendar year), I have noticed again a wave of articles condemning all of us who are not fans of the Williams sisters as racists among other pejoratives.
I have no problem saying that when Serena ties Steffi Graf's record of 22 grand slam titles and likely surpasses it particularly if she does this in the same calendar year that she is the greatest female player in history (although I still think Graf was a better mover around the court and had an even more surgical forehand).
But I still don't like her.
The main reason for this is she is a terrible sport refusing to acknowledge her competitors, attempting to physically intimidate them, insulting them. Tennis is not boxing. One of things that makes tennis great there is still a degree of decorum. It's not racism to ask the number one player in the world to show a little class.
It's not racism to criticize Serena Williams for threatening a much smaller lineswoman with violence at the 2009 US Open (which she should have been at least suspended for at least).
It's not racism to criticize Serena Williams for attempting to hinder Samantha Stosur's play at the US Open and threaten and insult an umpire when she was penalized for this.
It's not racism to criticize Serena Williams for doing a "crip walk" when celebrating a victory thus bringing gang culture to tennis.
It is wrong to criticize her for her body. It isn't much fun to see a much larger woman beat up on a smaller woman but Justine Henin showed that there were ways to blunt Williams's power. Navratilova also had a strong build and she is one of my favorite players of all time.
In the end, there are a lot of us who would like a woman's world number one who didn't carry on like this. Sports Illustrated once ran an article about Ivan Lendl when he was the number one player entitled "The champion that nobody cared about". That's how we who are Williams haters feel about Serena.
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