I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Williams sisters’ outraged self-exile from Indian Wells, due to racist comments and spirited boos against them. If you haven’t, this is the story:

Wednesday, March 14, 2001 -- Indian Wells, Calif.

Venus Williams wins a quarterfinal match versus Elena Dementieva to set up a Thursday night semifinal between Venus and Serena Williams.

From Dementieva's news conference: 

Q: Any predictions on tomorrow's match between sisters?

Dementieva: I mean, I don't know what Richard thinks about it. I think he will decide who's going to win tomorrow.

Q: Do a lot of players in the locker room feel that way -- that Richard decides who wins the matches?

Dementieva: No, I don't think so. I didn't talk about it with the other players.

Q: But you have that feeling?

Dementieva: Yeah.

Q: That it's a family decision?

Dementieva: Yeah

Thursday, March 15

A few hours before her match with Serena, Venus pulls out with knee tendinitis, a problem that haunts her today, and caused her to only play five matches after her shock Wimbledon defeat to Tvetsana Pironkova.

Saturday, March 17

Venus and Richard are booed when they enter the stadium during Serena’s final win over Kim Clijsters, while Serena is booed during serves, unforced errors and every fault.

Serena lifts the trophy, after her win, and is booed even louder

Whose side are you on?

I’m on the Williams Sisters’ side.

I can understand the crowd's disappointment at missing out on what would have been a great performance by the two sisters. But I do not agree with what they did to their compatriots.

There may have been no racist comments, there may have been no one dropping the “N” word. But I’m still on their side.

Why?

Because the American crowd actually believed Dementieva’s claims---who was clearly suffering from a case of sour grapes and bad sportsmanship--- how dare she accuse the Williams sisters of match fixing, and then later call it a joke. Is this is the player who has won a WTA sportsmanship award?

This was the player we were mourning the loss of a few weeks ago?

Serena went out there and won, she did not expect that her home crowd would actually treat her worse than what she would get in Paris against Justine Henin in 2003.

You can understand that Henin was France’s darling (even though she was Belgian, she spoke French and Roland Garros was her favourite tournament.)

Their treatment of Serena when she exposed Justine’s lack of sportsmanship betrayed a total lack of class and etiquette from the French crowd that day--- a crowd that Justine (of all people) calls the “best in the world." But you could understand that their anti-American feelings just spread onto the court and against Serena.

But the same case cannot be made in Indian Wells.

This was Venus and Serena’s birthplace, this was their country, they did not expect to be booed because a player was tired of being beaten and made a ‘joke’ about match fixing at their expense.

No wonder they don’t want to play for Fed Cup.

If you were them, would you feel sympathetic to those people who treated you worse than an anti-American French crowd?

Would you feel an ounce of gratefulness to those people who booed at you in order to try and make you lose?

Would you feel proud to be American?

No.

You would feel angry, outraged, and want justice--- and rightly so. So, Serena and Venus vowed to never set foot on the tournament ever again. And in doing so, they stripped the tournament of the privilege of having the faces of the WTA and American women’s tennis.

If Venus and Serena ever chose to return to Indian Wells, perhaps in their last year of competition, expect them to storm to the final and take the trophy home.

Let the crowd at Indian Wells rue the day when they booed at the two most powerful stars of the WTA.