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      Will Smith Owned the Williams Sisters’ Story Onscreen. Then He Stole Their Moment.

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      An Oscar night that should have affirmed Serena and Venus’s rise to stardom instead played out in a way they have seen before — triumph tempered by mixed emotions.The table was set for a moment of family triumph. Venus and Serena Williams were dressed and seated for the grand occasion on Sunday night, and Will Smith, who had played their father Richard with uncanny similitude in the movie “King Richard,” was poised to win the Oscar for best actor.But then, as so often happens with the Williamses, things got complicated — and, through no fault of the sisters, an evening that should have affirmed their against-great-odds rise to stardom instead became about Smith slapping the comedian Chris Rock onstage.When Smith accepted the Oscar, he delivered a tearful, rambling, semi-apologetic speech in which he said that “art imitates life” and “I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams.”Serena, watching the speech from a front-row box seat, covered her face with her hand.Unexpected and uncomfortable to watch, Smith’s failure to control his temper or rise to the occasion turned the night into one that the Williams sisters will never forget, for all the wrong reasons.It has often played out like this for these remarkable siblings, with moments of triumph tempered by controversy or mixed emotions.Smith said of the man he played onscreen: “He was a fierce defender of family.” On Monday, he apologized to Rock, the Williams family and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, calling his actions “unacceptable” and “inexcusable” and saying that “violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive.”“We don’t know all the details of what happened,” Richard Williams, via his son Chavoita LeSane, told NBC News. “But we don’t condone anyone hitting anyone else unless it’s in self-defense.”Will Smith slapped the comedian Chris Rock onstage at the 94th annual Academy Awards.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesRichard Williams, complex and frequently difficult to read, certainly created some of the friction and misunderstandings with the wider world. But, as “King Richard” makes clear, he and Oracene Price — they divorced in 2002 — also laid the groundwork for one of the biggest success stories in sports, and for two incandescent tennis careers who have lasted far longer than one would have imagined considering that neither Venus nor her younger sister Serena had much choice in the matter of their career path.The sisters were raised from birth to be tennis champions, with Richard Williams’s 78-page plan as the blueprint and plenty of help from coaches like Rick Macci, who for four years in the early 1990s polished the sisters’ strokes and tactics and provided the seed capital and the support that helped make the long-shot family dream a reality.Macci said he saw Richard Williams, now 80, at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., about three months ago and received a visit from him with a documentary crew about a month ago at his tennis academy in Boca Raton, Fla., where the sisters once trained. Macci said Williams was diminished after two strokes, but that they were still able to exchange stories.“There have been a smorgasbord of things that have played out through the years: the good, the bad, the ugly,” Macci, who figured prominently in “King Richard,” said in a telephone interview on Monday. “I think when you’re at the top and you’re unique, or two of a kind in their case, you’re just going to have speed bumps along the way. Last night was just unfortunate because it was just such a celebration of a story that you just cannot make up and unfortunately now that slap is the story. And the story should have been this miraculous thing.”Venus Williams and Serena Williams backstage during the 94th annual Academy Awards.A.M.P.A.S. Via Getty ImagesSome of the speed bumps were bumps of a different sort. In 1997, Venus Williams made her first major impact at a Grand Slam tournament, reaching the final of the U.S. Open at age 17 with white beads in her hair and thunder in her strokes.“I’m tall; I’m Black,” the 6-foot-1 Williams said early in the tournament. “Everything’s different about me. Just face the facts.”But her breakthrough took on another dimension when she and the Romanian player Irina Spirlea bumped into each other on a changeover during their semifinal. In defeat, Spirlea suggested that Venus Williams had an arrogant attitude, while Richard Williams talked about the racism his family had faced on tour and labeled Spirlea a “big, tall, white turkey.”In 2001, the family came to Indian Wells, Calif., and was booed by the crowd after Venus Williams withdrew from her semifinal match against Serena Williams shortly before it was to begin because of an injury. There was speculation at the time that Richard Williams was predetermining the results of his daughters’ matches — speculation that the Williamses denied — but the late withdrawal sparked suspicion and upset spectators. When Serena Williams returned to the court for her final against Kim Clijsters, with Richard and Venus in the stands, there were boos throughout the match, and Richard and Venus said they heard racial slurs from some fans.Serena and Venus Williams have remained remarkably close despite facing off frequently during their professional careers.Jed Jacobsohn /Allsport via Getty ImagesSerena won the title, but triumph again had a bitter taste. She boycotted the tournament for 14 years, returning in 2015, with Venus ending her 15-year boycott the following year.Even without controversy, the sisters’ dual success has been intricate. Remarkably close in their youth, as they remain today, their rise to the top of the game meant that they became frequent opponents, and though Venus Williams was the first to reach No. 1 and the first to win Wimbledon in singles, Serena Williams would prove, as her father predicted, the greater player, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles to Venus’s seven.Venus handled being usurped with grace, and Serena has always made it clear that she would never have become the champion she did without Venus as her role model and cheerleader-in-chief.“Venus wasn’t at all resentful,” Macci said. “She’s never been like that. And Serena has always looked up to Venus as ‘my big sister’ and even today, they have that. That’s very uncommon. You’re not keeping score, because it’s family and if one wins, we both win. I saw that early on.”Richard Williams arrived before the game started when Venus Williams faced Mandy Minella at Arthur Ashe Staidum during the 2010 U.S. Open.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesIt has worked beyond even Richard Williams’s imaginings. Though he predicted greatness and No. 1 rankings for Venus and Serena, he had long maintained that they would retire relatively early to pursue other interests. Instead, they have endured and excelled while pursuing other interests, including interior design and fashion design. Though they are near the end now and have not played on tour since last summer, they remain un-retired. Venus Williams is 41. Serena Williams is 40.Sunday night would have been a time to revel in the length of their journey, the depth of their achievements and Richard’s legacy. Instead, it turned into a night for Serena to cover her eyes, but, cinema, even when it is an Oscar-winning true story, won’t be the last word on the Williams sisters, or their father. More

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      Jane Campion and the Perils of the Backhanded Compliment

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      Jane Campion’s comment about Venus and Serena Williams reminded our critic of his own night of ‘botched fanciness’ and racial slights.Something about the way the director Jane Campion went overboard on Sunday to identify with, then insult, Venus and Serena Williams at an awards show brought to mind a night of botched fanciness that happened to me. A couple Fridays ago, I went to see some art: a Faith Ringgold retrospective at the New Museum in the afternoon, with friends; Norm Lewis singing at Carnegie Hall in the evening. (That was a solo trip.) For both, I wore a suit.The Ringgold show requires three floors and includes her 1967 masterpiece “American People Series #20: Die,” a blunt, bloody racial-rampage frieze that would be pure physical comedy about the era’s racial cataclysms were it not for the helpless terror in the faces she’s painted (Black men, women and children; white men, women and children). The scale of the canvas helps. It’s huge. Ringgold has always painted Black women in a range of moods, feelings, conditions, beauty. She gives them faces that feature both personal serenity and indicting alarm.I planted myself in a tight corridor that featured three works at the alarm end of things — the “Slave Rape” trio, from 1972. Each is a warm, sizable canvas of a woman nude and agape, framed by patchwork quilting, a signature of Ringgold. I was taking my time with one called “Slave Rape #2: Run You Might Get Away” — the woman is mid-flight, loosely shrouded by leaves, a big gold ring in each ear — when two strangers (women, white) parked themselves between me and the piece and continued a conversation I had heard them having in an adjacent gallery. They noticed neither me nor the depicted distress nor my engagement with it. I waited more than a minute before waving my hand, a gesture that seemed to irritate them.“Is something wrong?,” one stranger asked.“You’re in my way,” I told her.“Please accept our deepest apologies,” said her friend. If a middle ground exists between sincerity and sarcasm, these two had just planted a flag. But they did move, though not immediately, lest I relish some kind of relocation victory, and kept their talk of real estate and art ownership within earshot.The Faith Ringgold painting “American People Series #20: Die,” from 1967, in an  exhibition at the New Museum.Faith Ringgold/ARS, NY; Simbarashe Cha for The New York TimesAfter a drink with my friends I left for Carnegie Hall. A cab made sense. One pulled up, and the driver (male, brown) took a look at me, then noticed a white woman hailing a taxi up ahead and drifted her way, instead. When I jogged over to ask him what just happened — Is something wrong? — I was given no acknowledgment in the way only a guilty cabby can achieve. I chased the car half a block to photograph a plate number that you’d have to be Weegee to get just right. I’m not Weegee.I’d never been to Carnegie Hall. And I liked the idea that Norm Lewis was going to break me in. He played Olivia Pope’s senator ex on “Scandal” and one of the vets in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” He’s got a luscious, flexible baritone that I’d only ever encountered in recorded concerts on PBS. That night, backed by the New York Pops, he gave Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marvin Gaye the polished jewel treatment and pumped “Ya Got Trouble” with enough breathless gusto to make you wonder, with all due respect to Hugh Jackman, why the current “Music Man” revival isn’t starring him.As a solo performer, this was Lewis’s first show at Carnegie Hall, too. And people were anxious to see him and their beloved Pops. In a queue in the lobby before the show, one such person (woman, white) was making a point to push past me when I turned to ask if she was all right.“We’re going to will-call,” she said of herself and the gentleman she was with.“Ma’am, I think we all are,” I said.“We’re members. Are you?” she asked.I lied, hoping a yes would stanch her aggression.“Of the Pops?”She had me.“I like Norm Lewis,” I told her.“We love the Pops.”Venus Williams, left, and Serena Williams at the Critics Choice Awards; “King Richard,” a movie about their family, earned a best actor award for Will Smith.Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesI was thinking about my night out a week later when one of the world’s great filmmakers saluted two of the world’s greatest athletes in an acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards. Jane Campion had been given the directing prize for a sneaky-deep ranch drama called “The Power of the Dog.” From the stage, Campion (woman, white) saluted Venus and Serena Williams and announced that she had taken up tennis but her body had told her to stop. In her nervous excitement, Campion was charming. She then took curious note of her plight as a woman in the film industry by informing the Williamses that they’ve got nothing on her. “You are such marvels,” she said, through a grin. “However, you do not play against the guys like I have to.”The Williams sisters were in the room that evening because a smart, tangy movie about their family, “King Richard,” was in the nominations mix, alongside Campion’s. “King Richard” is not about the time in 2001 when a California crowd booed and slurred Venus and Serena and their father, Richard, at a top tennis tournament. It’s not about the many mischaracterizations of their bodies, skills and intent in the press and by their peers. It’s not about the insidiously everlasting confusion of one sister for the other, the sort of thing that, just a few weeks ago, took place on a page of this newspaper. It’s not even about their fight, Venus’s particularly, to get women’s prize money even with men’s “King Richard” is about how the sisters’ parents molded and loved and coached them into the sort of people who can handle sharp backhands and backhanded compliments with the same power and poise.Even though Campion’s errant backhand had flown wide, the room lurched into cheers. Some of the applause came from Serena Williams, who has watched many a shot sail long. I had to desist further thought about the meaning of Campion’s aside. It was too confused. Was this a wish for the establishment of gendered guardrails for directors at award shows or the elimination of such distinctions in sports? Are there no men to be contended with in tennis? The line separating argument from accusation and accusation from self-aggrandizement was murky. I thought instead about the costs of the murk.Sunday afternoon, the Williamses got dressed up to celebrate some art. And somebody stood before them and challenged the validity of their membership, here in Campion’s restricted vision of sisterhood. The next day, Campion gushed an apology. These slips and slights and presumptions have a way of lingering, though. Their underlying truth renders them contrition-proof. I had every intention of keeping my date with Faith and Norm to myself. These incidents aren’t rare in fancyland, and therefore don’t warrant a constant spotlight because standing in its glare is exhausting. But Venus. Her face does something as Campion speaks. A knowing cringe. She and her family came out to soak up more of the praise being lavished on art about their life. They were invitees turned, suddenly, into interlopers, presenting one minute, plunged through a trap door the next. Faith Ringgold would recognize the discomfort. She painted it over and over. Run you might get away. But you probably won’t. More

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      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Tuesday

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      Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty start their French Open campaigns on the final day of first-round matches.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel; streaming on the Tennis Channel+ app.As the first-round matches stretch into a third day of play at Stade Roland Garros, there are two women who can claim defense of the French Open title. Iga Swiatek, the 2020 champion, won her first-round match on Monday. On Tuesday, we turn our attention to Ashleigh Barty, the 2019 champion, who did not play at the French Open or United States Open last year, citing pandemic health concerns. Today, Barty will return to Court Phillipe-Chatrier to face Bernarda Pera, ranked No. 70.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 3 p.m. TuesdayNovak Djokovic vs. Tennys SandgrenTennys Sandgren made a joke on Twitter after the French Open draw was revealed that was a self-aware assessment of his slim chances, given he has only won one of his six clay court matches this year.Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1, has also assessed his chances of winning the French Open in clear terms. He sees only one player as his main challenge: Rafael Nadal. He lost to Nadal in three sets in the final of the Italian Open, so if they were to meet in the semifinals in Paris, the five-set format could favor Djokovic’s fitness. While there are plenty of opponents to mind before then, it’s unlikely that Sandgren will last long in the bullring with Djokovic, the Australian Open and Wimbledon defending champion.Court PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 10 a.m. TuesdayRafael Nadal vs. Alexei PopyrinAlexei Popyrin, ranked No. 63, secured his first ATP title in February at the Singapore Open. The lanky 21-year-old’s game is more suited to hard courts, but Popyrin reached the third round at the Madrid Open on clay. Unfortunately, he then ran into Rafael Nadal, who summarily knocked him out.Nadal has won the French Open 13 times, and is the four-time defending champion at Roland Garros. The undisputed “King of Clay” won the Barcelona Open and Italian Open this year, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic in the finals. Although Nadal has not looked as usually dominant in the clay court tournaments, he demonstrated that he can still make up for shortcomings with tenacity. It is an almost foregone conclusion that he will advance to the next round on his way to a deep run.COURT SUZANNE-LENGLEN| 1 p.m. TuesdayKarolina Pliskova vs. Donna VekicKarolina Pliskova, the ninth seed, has struggled with her form over the past few years. Although she is an exceptional ball striker, her movement on court has declined. Pliskova added the renowned coach Sascha Bajin to her team in 2020, but so far, any improvement has been met with a counterbalance. At the Italian Open, she reached the final only to be swept by Iga Swiatek.Donna Vekic, ranked No. 36, did not played any clay tournaments in preparation for Roland Garros as she recovered from knee surgery after the Australian Open in February. Vekic reached the round of 16 in Melbourne, and has the ability to make a similar run in Paris, but without match fitness, it will be difficult to chase after Pliskova’s flat, powerful shots.Venus Williams has won seven Grand Slam tournaments but struggles on red clay.Juanjo Martin/EPA, via ShutterstockCourt 14 | 10 a.m. TuesdayVenus Williams vs. Ekaterina AlexandrovaEkaterina Alexandrova, the 32nd seed, won her first WTA title in 2020, but has yet to break through to the second week of a Grand Slam event. Alexandrova has reached the third round of the French Open for the past two years, and if all goes as expected she will meet the fifth seed, Elina Svitolina, there once again this year.Venus Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has always struggled the most on red clay. Williams captured her first major title on grass at Wimbledon in 2000, before the defending champion of the French Open, Iga Swiatek, was born. This year, Williams has only won one match, but continues fighting for victories that seem only slightly out of reach.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Ons Jabeur vs. Yulia Putintseva; Court 8, 5 a.m. TuesdayAshleigh Barty vs. Bernarda Pera; Court Phillipe-Chatrier, 8 a.m. TuesdayFelix Auger-Aliassime vs. Andrea Seppi; Court 13, 8 a.m. TuesdaySloane Stephens vs. Carla Suárez Navarro; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 1 p.m. Tuesday More

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      A Stumble, a Scream and Venus Williams Is Out at Australian Open

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Australian OpenWhat to Watch TodayHow to WatchThe Players to KnowTesting Australians’ VIrus AnxietiesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyA Stumble, a Scream and Venus Williams Is OutWilliams played through a painful ankle injury in her second-round match against Sara Errani. But her grit could not prevent her latest defeat.Venus Williams needed treatment on her ankle and knee in the first set.Credit…William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 10, 2021, 7:26 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams moved toward the net in pursuit of a short return, a little stiffly because of her liberally taped left knee. Altering her stride when she saw the ball clip the net, she rolled her right ankle. Her anguished cry echoed through Melbourne Park’s John Cain Arena, causing the fans sprinkled throughout the stands to sit up straighter.At that point, Williams, the grande dame of American tennis, trailed by 1-5 and 0-15 in the first set of her second-round match against Sara Errani of Italy.“I didn’t understand what she had in the beginning,” Errani said, adding, “I was scared.”Errani said she pleaded with the chair umpire to do something. “I was telling him to go, please go to her,” she said.Williams, 40, a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and the oldest woman in this year’s Australian Open, was down. But she was not out.Trainers were summoned, and Williams held back tears in back-to-back medical timeouts as her right ankle was taped and her left knee was mummified.Sara Errani, right, said she pleaded with the chair umpire to call for help when Williams rolled her ankle.Credit…Jason O’Brien/EPA, via ShutterstockAt No. 81 in the world, Williams was ranked 53 spots higher than Errani, a qualifier. Williams’s streak of never having lost to a player outside the top 100 in 20 previous trips to the Australian Open was about to end. But in that moment on Wednesday, Errani was taking no chances.“I was thinking to be ready, that anything can happen,” Errani said.On Monday, Williams had dispatched Kirsten Flipkens to become the sixth woman in her 40s to win a main draw singles match at the Australian Open, joining a group that includes Billie Jean King.Asked afterward if she thought of her age when she was on the court, she stared sternly at her inquisitor and asked, “Would it be front of mind for you?”“Not necessarily,” he replied.“There you go,” Williams said.After her injury was treated on Wednesday, Williams rose and hobbled to her side of the court, dragging her left leg behind her. Somehow, she won two points before dropping her service game and the first set, 6-1, in 44 minutes.During the changeover, Williams sat with her head in her hands, disconsolate. But she was not done.She gingerly rose and made swing and serving motions with her racket and shuffled from side to side to test her sore right ankle and her stiff right knee. And then she played on.Williams lost the first point of the next game after an 11-shot rally. She loped forward on the second point but netted her volley. She earned a point with a blistering return of a serve, then lost the game when, on the 11th shot of the rally, Errani landed a drop shot that Williams could not chase down.Serving flat-footed, Williams was broken at 30-40 with another drop shot, which she tracked down but returned long.Williams hung in — earning three break points in the next game and then saving two before losing her next service game. After Errani held her own serve again, Williams was down by 0-5.Serving to prolong the match, Williams had a game point at 40-30 but couldn’t convert it. She staved off two match points — the first with a forehand winner on a 13-shot rally — before Errani converted her third to win, 6-1, 6-0, in 1 hour 15 minutes.“Not really happy to win like that,” Errani said in an on-court interview. “I was so sorry for her.”In a news conference afterward, Errani said she focused as best she could “on my tennis and what I had to do and that’s it.”Williams, 40, did not speak with reporters after Wednesday’s loss, and it was unclear if she had played her final singles match at the Australian Open.Credit…Hamish Blair/Associated PressWilliams, who declined an interview through the WTA, left the grounds. Will she be back for a 22nd Australian Open?“I just like being here,” she had said before this year’s tournament, professing a love for Australia. “I never leave early. I usually always hang around after, you know, if it’s not the result I wanted.”In 2017, Williams lost to her sister Serena in the final in Melbourne. Since finishing as the runner-up at Wimbledon and advancing to the semifinals at the United States Open later that same year, she has not advanced to the second weekend in singles at a Grand Slam. But earlier this week, she sounded as if she was not done trying.After her victory against Flipkens, Williams had said: “I’m trying to get better every day. I think that no matter what happens to you in life, you always hold your head up high, you give a hundred million percent. That’s what I do every single day. That’s something that I can be proud of.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More