Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Wimbledon and the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections On the Crowds Attitude
Towards Serena Williams at Centre Court
by Ahmed Olayinka Sule, CFA
suleaos@gmail.com
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article titled “Cheryl Cole and the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections On England’s Attitude Towards Accents”. In that paper<<http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/cheryl-cole-and-justice-roosting-chickens>>, I asked whether Cheryl’s removal from the American X factor due to her accent was a case of the chicken coming home to roost as a result of England’s low tolerance for African, Asian and most other non-English accents.
Well nearly a month after Cheryl Cole was ousted from the American X-factor due to her accent, could Britain have just experienced another case of the ‘chicken coming host to roost’?
On the 1st of July 2011, thousands of tennis faithful stormed the Wimbledon Centre Court to watch home favourite Andy Murray take on the Spanish matador Rafael Nadal in the semi-final of The Championship. To the disappointment of the 15,000 fans that trooped to the Centre Court, Andy Murray succumbed to the firepower of Nadal despite winning the first set. The collective mood at Centre Court on that day was a combination of sober reflection, frustration and resignation. As a consequence of the defeat, Britain has to wait another year for its 75-year search for a British male Wimbledon champion.
In the aftermath of Murray’s defeat, the mood at Centre Court was very different from the mood a couple of days earlier when 13 times Grand Slam and 4 times Wimbledon winner Serena Williams lost her fourth round match against Maria Bartoli of France.
What surprised many commentators and me on that day was the reaction of the Centre Court crowd to Serena’s defeat. Despite the fact that Serena’s match took place on a different court i.e. Court One, the crowd at Centre Court erupted in a huge cheer when the result of Serena’s defeat was flashed on the Centre Court large screen.
The end-of-match cheering at the Centre Court against Serena was not only unfortunate but also distasteful. Having watched several matches over the years involving Serena and Venus at Centre Court, I know that the Centre Court crowd has never warmed up to Serena or her sister Venus. If Serena lost at Centre Court and the crowd started cheering her defeat this would be understandable as fans are expected to be partisan when watching a match; however collectively cheering an athletes defeat, which takes place on a different court, is uncharted territory in Wimbledon (especially as Serena was not playing against a British opponent).
Considering Serena’s contribution to the Wimbledon Championship in the last decade in addition to her recent near death experience, the crowds reaction at Centre Court is in bad taste and disrespectful to the four time Wimbledon Champion. Have the crowd ever reacted in such a fashion to other Wimbledon greats like Steffi Graf, Roger Federer, Martina Navratilova , Pete Sampras and crowd favorite Maria Sharapova?
Perhaps if the Centre Court is to end its 75 year wait for a Wimbledon male British champion, the crowd may have to learn how to show respect to past champions and great competitors such as Serena who have contributed to making the Wimbledon Championship the greatest tennis event in the world; otherwise every July, the chickens will continue to come to Centre Court to roost.
THE ALATENUMO 