The Williams sisters will not receive the reported penalty of USD 100,000 between them after failing to show up for their mandatory post-match press conference after losing to Australian Maya Joint and Taiwanese Hao-Ching Chan in the US Open doubles event.
There are Grand Slam rule procedures that can punish players up to USD 50,000 if they fail to appear at mandated media events without a valid excuse.
American reporter James Gray stated that the Open tournament managers had determined not to enforce that either Williams sister play out their mandated interview.
Serena failed to be seen at the Wimbledon conference at all and will avoid further punishment after she lost to Joint in Wimbledon singles in July. On this occasion, her failure to appear at the media event was apparently due to an injury she experienced that took precedence over a formal interview on the spot.
The reason on Friday was unannounced, yet Gray suggested that it had nothing to do with physical damage. It was, in fact, a unique experience and privilege for the match winner:
“She’s an idol of mine-both of them,” Joint commented.
“I looked up to them growing up.”
