Serena Williams’ father Richard was at odds with several tennis players and journalists at the turn of the 21st century. While 18-time Major winner Chris Evert was one of the stars that faced his wrath, she certainly didn’t take his smack-talk sitting down nearly two decades ago.
Evert spoke to ESPN during a tell-all interview in 2006. Towards the end of the interview, the American legend was told that Richard Williams was unhappy with the open letter she had written to his younger daughter in a tabloid called ‘Tennis Magazine’.
The journalist who interviewed Chris Evert informed her that Serena Williams’ father had found her words to be derogatory and that he had called the former player a ‘little white no-good trasher’.
The then-52-year-old, however, didn’t take kindly to these barbs. She insisted that she wouldn’t escape the media’s ire if her parents had made such remarks, before suggesting that the tennis world wasn’t interested in what Williams Sr. had to say.
“As far as Richard, the quotes, I don’t know what to say. I kind of feel sorry for him if he is that angry and bitter about tennis players and about white tennis players,” Chris Evert said about Serena Williams’ father to ESPN in 2006. “When people lash out like that, they must be miserable people. I’m not going to compound it. I think it’s unacceptable.”
“If my parents had come out with quotes like that, I think people would make a bigger deal about it. He has a history of saying things that are unacceptable. And I don’t really think many people in tennis listen to him anymore. So if I make a stink about it, it’s just going to draw attention to it. That’s why I didn’t say anything,” she added.
You can also read about
