Friday, March 20, 2009

Breaking News - Financial Penalties for Venus and Serena?


by Savannah

Serena and Venus Williams hit with financial penalties for not playing Indian Wells
From correspondents in Indian Wells, California
March 21, 2009
The WTA will take a hard financial line with the Williams sisters, who have boycotted the Indian Wells Masters since a booing incident in 2001.

Tour boss Larry Scott says Venus and Serena will pay the price for their continual absences from the required event.

"There will be sanctions despite the personal issues of the Williams sisters," said Scott.

"They will pay significant consequences."

In the pocket, those will include the loss of $A438,00 for world No.1 Serena from the $A2.77 million year-end bonus pool, while Venus will forfeit $A219,000.

The stubborn sisters, who claim that racism was responsible for the crowd jeers near the turn of the century, will each have to make promotional appearances for the WTA - Venus in July in conjunction with the ESPY sports awards in LA and Serena in the autumn to promote the year-end championships in Doha.

Source

Notice the source of this news. When the official WTA statement comes out I will post it.