American fined after failing to speak to media at Australian OpenEighth seed fell to a shock defeat to Britain’s Johanna KontaNot for the first time in her career,Australian Open eighth seed Venus Williams has departed a grand slam in melodramatic style, apparently happy to wear a US$5000 fine in order to avoid discussing her shock first-round exit at the hands of worthy Britain’s Johanna Konta on Tuesday.
The maximum penalty for skipping mandated post-match press conferences is US$20000 but Williams’ latest fine actually qualifies as a hefty punishment by the standards of those normally meted out on women’s players. Still, or for a similar offence it is bettered only by the $10000 penalty levied on Marat Safin for avoiding media commitments at the 2001 French Open. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com