After the second round of the Australian Open, after playing Lucie Safarova, Serena Williams took questions from reporters. The first ‘question came from a reporter who favored her with his evaluation: “Congrats on the win. But it looked a little bit of a scrappy performance. A few more unforced errors, a few double-faults.”
She won it. She won it in two sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Williams in Rome, 2016.
Williams replied. “I think that’s a very negative thing to say. Are you serious?”
The reporter obnoxed: “Just my observation.”
Williams, calmly: “Okay. Well, you should have been out there. That wasn’t very kind. You should apologize.” She put her water bottle under the table. “Do you want to apologize?”
“I just did. I’m sorry.”
A more positive reaction, from someone who actually IS Williams’s coach – Patrick Mouratoglou.
Williams said, “Thank you very much. That was a great performance. I played well. She’s a former top-10 player. The last time we played together was in the finals of a Grand Slam. You know, it’s not an easy match. She’s a really good player. You have to go for more, which obviously makes a few more errors. So yeah, I think it was overall a really good match, on both of our ends.”
I didn’t see the reporter’s name, even in the Australian press. But I’m calling Mr. Anonymous’s apology a moderately good one – it was so prompt. On tape, he sounds like he means it, and is already aghast at his seconds-earlier self. As for “I just did,” he probably muttered an apology the mic didn’t catch while she was stowing her water. He had the grace to repeat it instead of complaining “How many times do you want me to say it?”
Williams in 2015.
Which I mention because this guy’s small rhetorical techniques sound familiar, and I already know I don’t want to rent a room in a group household with him and his little observations.
Notice that after accepting the apology, Williams responded to his captious question in a gracious way that praised her opponent.
Well played.
She’s no stranger to obnoxious questions. As you said, I like her gracious response to the original (insulting) question.
I wanted to note that “hack” is just slang for reporter in British & Australian English, not an insult. Otherwise, spot on.
Thank you! As you saw, I didn’t realize that.
Torn between removing my mistake and leaving it there as a monument to my US parochialism. Decided to remove it because sometimes people don’t read the comments…
I always read your comments.
I love “obnox” as a very.
Thank you! I think it makes a great verb.
Yes. Am adding that to my lexicon. Great description for presideejit
I don’t think an apology was appropriate in this case. Serena Williams can disagree with the question – and so may you – but the reporter was well within bounds in asking it. Apologizing just adds fuel to the notion that top-tier tennis players have the right to decide what they’re asked – and there’s way too much of that already. There’s a lot of questions people don’t dare ask. See for example what happened when a reporter asked SW about the Therapeutic Use Exemption the Russian hacking team Fancy Bear unearthed and posted on the web. She walked out without answering.
So: disagree.
wg
– your sometime tennis correspondent.
Hmm. Athletes aren’t politicians–do they owe us answers?
Yes, they do when the questions are about the game, how they played, anomalies in their anti-doping records, match-fixing, and anything else to do with the integrity of the game. All countries give substantial public money to support sports in various ways, and anyone who buys products from Nike or any of the other companies that pay SW sponsorship and prize money is indirectly paying part of her income. An athlete of SW’s visibility, accomplishments, and stature *especially* owes answers on such subjects.
wg
This is the *third* reply I’ve written to this because the spam control is unpredictable about whether it wants a digit or a number spelled out, and when you hit the back button as it instructs, it vapes anything you’ve already typed.