Dominic Thiem just told Eurosport that Serena Williams has a “bad personality.” As insults go, it’s the stoic German-speaking equivalent of calling someone “Meanie Mcmeanface.” Not exactly a scathing commentary–or it wouldn’t be if anyone else had said it. But Thiem is…well…Thiem. He’s about as affable and agreeable as a professional athlete gets. For him to be provoked enough to say something so uncharacteristically negative is worth noting. So consider this my note.
If you’re unfamiliar with the scenario that prompted his annoyance, here are the specifics:
- Serena lost her third round match to Sofia Kenin. In straight sets.
- Serena wasn’t happy that she lost her third round match to Sofia Kenin. You might not have noticed this, but Serena doesn’t much like losing.
- Per usual, she had no desire to stick around a tournament of which she was no longer a part, so she marched straight to the media center to fulfill her media obligations (which is to say that she had to answer 4 different versions of ‘What went wrong out there?’). It perhaps didn’t occur to her that the main interview room *might* already be occupied. Enter an unsuspecting Domi Thiem.
- Thiem was in the middle of his own post-match presser (a match he won, incidentally) when Serena got to the media center. Contrary to initial reports, she did NOT insist on preempting Domi’s PC. What she did was tell them to put her in the small interview room immediately, an idea tournament officials rejected. Correctly.
- Instead of telling the impatient and increasingly irate Mrs. Williams that she would need to wait her turn, tournament officials stopped Thiem’s presser, interrupting a reporter’s question mid-sentence. INCORRECTLY.
- Serena conducted her presser, in which she answered the ubiquitous “What went wrong out there,” while Thiem identified the proceedings for the joke that they were and decided he doesn’t feel like answering any more questions just then. I’ve included a clip of the nonsense below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9itbVpCRKRM
While it’s not true that Serena “threw” Thiem out of the main interview room (our very own Ricky Dimon is on-site in Paris this week. Read his account of events here), her unwillingness to wait five minutes for him to finish was nearly as disrespectful as if she’d simply demanded he be relocated. Why do I say that, you ask? Because Serena is a celebrity. Actually, she’s a Celebrity. Her outfits get more attention than most of the players in the draw. She does television commercials with Steph Curry. Her backside has been immortalized in song by Kanye West. A small interview room wouldn’t be big enough for a presser after a practice hit in Bastad, much less an unexpected loss at a Grand Slam. There is simply no way officials could reasonably comply with her request.
However, let’s say that they did let her do what she was asking. Imagine how embarrassing that would have been for Thiem. Reporters in his interview room would have been forced to choose between finishing out his presser and witnessing a possible tantrum by the most famous player on the WTA (which is to say no choice at all). So, it was either kick him out (which they did) or have nearly all the journalists present file out unceremoniously. It’s a bad bit of business.
As for blame? That can be fairly evenly distributed between Serena and tourney officials. Today in his presser, Thiem correctly assessed the situation. “I’m the only one who didn’t do any mistakes there.” Right you are, Domi. Serena was impatient, petulant, and a bit of a bully. But it must be said that she didn’t set out to be disrespectful to Thiem…she just lost sight of anyone but herself there for a minute.
The tournament, on the other hand, didn’t lose sight of anything. They just didn’t care enough to do the right thing. Serena was the bigger name and she made a scene. Apparently that was reason enough to be rude to and dismissive of a player who was a 2018 finalist. It stinks.
For the record, I like Serena. I like her success, I like her fierce determination. I can remember feeling sick watching chair umpire Mariana Alves openly discriminate against her at the US Open in 2004. If you’ve never seen this, prepare to be appalled. It’s one of the most outrageous things I have ever seen on a tennis court.
Serena kept her cool and earned a lifetime of respect from me. But when someone is wrong, they’re wrong. And this? It was wrong.
Not horribly wrong, yet wrong still.
I do not believe that any other player would have effectively said “It’s my way or I take the highway.” Still the RG official that made the call screwed up big time. Their job is to organize the tournament, not cater to the demands of superstars.
This is why we have Cheryl here.
A great blog that highlighted a truly disgusting situation. That clip with Thiem was so embarrassing to see. Just inexcusable. He had every right to feel disrespected.
Serena owes Thiem an apology and so does the tournament. Thanks to Cheryl for saying it all so well.
😉
so what would have been the correct solution? Just make her wait it out and then put her in interview room 1 after Thiem?
See point No. 5 in the blog. 🙂
Yes, the correct course of action would have been “He’s almost done. Wait your turn.” You know…like everyone else has to. Any other solution is needlessly embarrassing.
Also, Thiem was right when he said he misspoke about not being a juniors player anymore. Even a junior deserves common courtesy.
Yes,it doesn’t matter if it was the world 300Oth player,don’t interrupt.
Cheryl, re the blatant ‘mistakes’ by the umpire in the Capriati match – do umpires ever get sanctioned for such errors after a match?
In this case Alves was “relieved of duty” for the rest of the tournament. She should have been relieved of duty permanently. I watched that match – it was HORRIFYING. I’ve never seen such blatant cheating by a chair umpire before. Afterward, Capriati said something like “sometimes calls go against me, too.” Riiiggghhhhttt.
I’m no apologist for Serena at all, I do think she’s a diva but she and Venus have had to fight to get respect from certain tournament directors such as Wimbledon, who, after their many years of success there, often relegate them to lower courts in deference to players like Sharapova who is a sitting tenant on CC even though she’s only won it once.
On this occasion, she should have been made to wait because she couldn’t just walk away as she has an obligation to attend a PC after a match and as Cheryl says, the press would have followed her to Room 2 which would have been embarrassing for Thiem. I blame the organisers more than I blame Serena.
I have mixed feelings about this. It it my understanding Serena said it was rude what they did to Thiem when she learned they had kicked him out. One, they shouldn;t have kicked him out and Two, when she found out she could have said “I’ll wait.” Neither of those things happened.
But ….I feel the press is partly to blame also. If they would have left his presser to go to hers they are sending a message he is not important.Case in point, an article just came up on FB and it was titled, :The player who criticized Serena said he would play doubles with her at Wimbledon.” He’s not worthy enought to be called by his name?
95% of the articles written are about Roger, Rafa, Novak and Serena or some retired player is talking about Roger, Rafa, Novak or Serena. Another case in point, Roger was asked to weigh in on the controversy, becasue it apparently couldn’t be just about Thiem and Serena, had to get Roger somewhere in the mix. He had nothing to do with any of it.
So when the press continually treats these players like Divas, you can’t turn around and criticize them for acting like Divas.
It seems to me at every slam, these officials don’t handle things properly and so they get all the complaints and criticisms. AO being criticised for favouring Fed ( in the final vs Cilic); RG now for Serena; Wimbledon – favouring Fed so much so that Djoko had to complain in order to get to play his QF at CC; USO scheduling?
Why can’t they be fairer in their court allocations even if it’s to be done for the top playerS?? Why favor one top player over another?
It’s because money rules the roost. Most human beings in these types of positions are weak and put money before principles.
The Williams sisters, Sharapova, Azarenka are not to be blamed for being low-grade human beings. The sport will naturally attract the worst of these types of people when there’s a lot of money involved. It’s the management of the sport that is to blame because they allowed it to hapen and continue in the name of money. Bad culture breeds from the top.