Venus Williams has brushed aside more questions regarding her alleged threat to walk out of the Australian Open if her round three match with Sania Mirza was shifted from its Saturday night Rod Laver Arena timeslot, however the American was careful in her responses today.Since Williams and Mirza rejected an offer to switch either postpone their match – already over two hours behind schedule – or move to the secondary Vodafone Arena, rumours have run rampant that Williams threatened to ‘get on the first plane home’ if she was to be inconvenienced. The staging of the match resulted in Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis starting their match at thirteen minutes to midnight.
Tournament director Craig Tiley has acknowledged that a 25 minute discussion with Williams and Mirza took place before a final decision was made, with issues of race also believed to have been discussed.
Williams endured a tense media conference after her sluggish 6-4, 6-4 fourth round win over unseeded Polish player Marta Domachowska.
“Okay, so, you know, any credible writer I don’t think would come in here and ask me something like that,” Williams said when question about the supposed threat. “That’s crazy, first of all. Second of all, you know, I am pleased that the matches went on as scheduled.”
“But, you know, all this hearsay, I don’t deal with that.”
The barrage from the media continued.
“Like I said the other day, everyone was dealing with the circumstances, every single player, with the rain, and with the day session going late. Everyone was dealing with it. It’s not ideal circumstances, but everyone dealt with it the best they could. That transcript is available.
“But at this point, you know, I’m in the quarterfinals. I want to focus more or less on that. That was days ago.”
The elder Williams conceded early breaks against the world number 146, who before this week had won just two grand slam matches in nine appearances.
“The last couple rounds I’ve definitely played some players who had some interesting strategies as far as going for broke.
Williams will play 4th seed Ana Ivanovic in a marquee quarter final. The Serbian is yet to take a set off Williams in four previous contests.
“I do consider myself a big-match player,” Williams said. “I do enjoy those times. I enjoy the battle. I enjoy the challenge.”
Share This Post!
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Why are women’s matches considered to be so unimportant that this is such a big controversy? At this point, the accusations against Williams are ridiculous and unfair unless they can be PROVED. Not all persons of colour make an issue of race to have things their way. Ridiculous!