Venus Williams Claps Back at Reporter Who Tried to Pit Her Against Sister Serena Williams
“Are you going to write a good article or just a halfway decent one?” Venus Williams asked a reporter, when he wondered if she was just playing at Wimbledon to best her sister, Serena Williams
Venus Williams did not mince words when she and fellow tennis star Jamie Murray were asked a shady question about their siblings during a press conference over the weekend.
The two athletes played in the mixed doubles competition at Wimbledon this year. And after winning their first-round match against Michael Venus and Alicja Rosolska on Saturday, one reporter asked the duo whether Venus and Jamie were hoping to best her sister Serena Williams and his brother Andy Murray in the tennis tournament.
“Are you in it to win it or is it the first target to get past the third round where Serena and Andy became a cropper?” the reporter said in video of the exchange from the BBC that has since gone viral, referencing how Serena and Andy had respectively been defeated in earlier rounds of Wimbledon’s singles competition.
Seemingly confused by his question, Venus, 42, looked at Jamie, 36, and wondered, “What kind of question is that?”
“We’re in it for a stroll,” she sarcastically responded the reporter. “Like, come on.”
But the reporter was not done yet despite Venus’ obvious dismissal of his words. “Are you in it for the experience or are you going to go all the way?” he went on to ask.
“Are you going to write a good article or just a half way decent one?” Venus clapped back.
Brilliant return from Venus!#BBCTennis #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/MFdNgPtGyE
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 2, 2022
Fans went wild over Venus’ response, championing her words as a “fantastic response” on Twitter.
Sadly, Venus and Jamie weren’t able to make it much further. The duo failed to best Alicia Barnett and Jonny O’Mara in ta following round when they were unable to convert five match points in a marathon third-set tiebreaker.
This was Venus’ first tournament in more than 10 months. “The queen is BACK,” a post on her activewear brand EleVen’s Instagram account wrote last week, revealing her return to London. “@venuswilliams is returning to the historic grass courts of @wimbledon where she holds 5 singles titles & 6 doubles titles — let’s add a mixed doubles title to that list, shall we?!”
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Harmony Tan of France, 24, defeated her younger sister, Serena, in her first singles match in a year during the first-round of the Wimbledon singles tournament. Serena, 40, opened up about her return to the courts on Instagram afterwards, calling it “insane and intense.”
“Not the result I came for, but my goodness I enjoyed that,” she wrote in the caption alongside a picture of herself waving to the crowd. “I hope you did as well. Onward and up. ☺️ ☺️.”
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