Andy Roddick On The Ugly Truth Behind How We Treat Serena Williams

[marmar]

from HuffPost:


Retired American tennis player Andy Roddick won't be playing at the U.S. Open this year (despite the best wishes of some fans), but he is watching the matches closely, especially those of Serena Williams, the tournament's defending champion -- the only champion who's been forced to deflect accusations of match-fixing and body-shaming takedowns, seemingly all at once.

At the U.S. Open, Williams is attempting to win her 22nd career Grand Slam title to tie Steffi Graf for second all-time, which would also give her a true calendar year Grand Slam -- the first since Graf did it in 1988. With so much history on the line for Williams, Roddick voiced his support for her in an interview with The New York Observer published on Wednesday.

Roddick, who's been best friends with Williams since they were 8 years old, reflected on their journey together, noting that he faced far less criticism over the years for his outlandish behavior compared to her (emphasis ours).

To see her come from the 10-year-old with beads in her hair -- I mean (expletive), just to see her become just this complete icon and the best female athlete of all time. I love the respect she’s getting this week in the lead-up too. She has the support of an entire country. We threw lots of fits on the court. I was a (jerk) a lot of the time, and I didn’t get a quarter of the criticism that she ever got. To see her at this moment, and on the precipice of doing something great, and that will be remembered forever, it’s just so cool. I’m so happy for her, and I hope she does it.”

Throughout his professional tennis career, Roddick was poorly tempered and indignant to entire legions of tennis officials. He even tried to fight Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open locker room in 2013. In press conferences and at events, Roddick was known for brushing it all away with self-deprecating humor, escaping harsh media criticism while he racked up fines for his antics. Generally, any time Roddick had displayed disrespectful behavior, he's been able to simply exit the moment by leveraging his privilege as a white male in a sport that's long been dominated, culturally and in terms of record holders, by white males. ...................(more)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andy-roddick-serena-williams_55e74095e4b0c818f61a3bbf