Venus Williams risks huge Wimbledon fine for copying Serena after controversy | Tennis | Sport
Venus Williams did not attend post-match media after losing in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon. The American superstar won five singles titles here and received a wildcard into the mixed event alongside experienced doubles star Kevin Krawietz. They were placed on the small outdoor Court 14, as fans swarmed outside to try and catch a glimpse of Venus, 46.
The wildcards suffered a 6-4 6-4 defeat to No. 7 seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Tereza Mihalikova, and Venus had been requested to attend a press conference afterwards, but did not come. It is understood that the former world No. 1 declined to attend and did not provide any comments through the WTA or the All England Club.
Venus could now be fined up to £37,000 ($50,000) in line with the Grand Slam rulebook, at the discretion of the Grand Slam supervisors. The rule states: “Unless unable to appear on reasonable grounds (for instance illness or injury), both winning and losing players or teams will be required to attend post-match media opportunities organised at an appropriate and reasonable time (as a guideline 60 minutes is to be considered reasonable), following the conclusion of each match, including walkovers unless extended or otherwise modified by the Referee for good cause at both Qualifying and Main Draw events.”
A statement from Serena’s agent, Jill Smoller, released via the All England Club read: “Serena tweaked her right knee at the end of the first set and was therefore excused from her media obligations by the Wimbledon and WTA medical teams. She left site that night unaided and is doing everything she can to be ready for her doubles match later this week.”
Serena and Venus are expected to reunite on the doubles court here at Wimbledon, 10 years after they last lifted the trophy together. But the younger sister’s knee injury has thrown their participation into doubt.
The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion took to social media on Wednesday to confirm that she had tweaked her knee and was doing everything she could to be ready for doubles. Every women’s doubles match in the draw was scheduled on either Thursday or Friday, except for the Williams’ sisters clash with Camila Osorio and Solana Sierra.
That match has appeared on Saturday’s schedule but is ‘to be arranged’ and will not be played before 4.30pm. It means they do not yet have an allocated court. Earlier on Friday, tournament director Jamie Baker said: “We are giving her as much time [as possible]. Obviously, we want her to play, if she possibly can. In terms of the days, it’s a guideline. Like that’s what we’re hoping to do based on trying to get the tournament finished.
“There are actually sometimes exceptional circumstances, whether it’s weather or injuries or actually sometimes also conflicts of players playing in two or three events. It doesn’t happen that often, but occasionally you do get the odd match that carries over. And we wouldn’t do that if we felt it was putting the rest of the competition in any type of danger of putting it back. Let’s see.”
