Serena Williams fell victim to an unfortunate mistake recently! Despite her illustrious career, the former Olympic Gold-medalist WTA star faced an unexpected occurrence from a reputed New York-based publication.

As they showcase a lack of knowledge in tennis, fans slam the platform asking “why don’t these organizations ever learn?”

A reliable tennis source shared Variety Magazine’s latest blunder where they tweeted about their article on Serena Williams’ latest ESPN documentary, ‘In the Arena: Serena Williams,’ using Venus Williams’ photo as the cover image.

“Variety doesn’t have any Black people working for them that could tell them that this isn’t Serena Williams?”- wrote the fan. Despite Variety correcting this unacceptable mistake on their website within half an hour, their tweet was left as it was for three hours fueling the anger of the tennis community about the publication’s lack of knowledge.

Serena Williams’ documentary ‘In the Arena: Serena Williams’ was released on ESPN on July 10th. However, Variety’s article, written by Brian Steinberg, was published earlier, on 27th June.

In the article, Steinberg discussed Morgan Stanley’s sports sponsorship and the trends of advertisements promoting women’s sports, using Serena Williams’ documentary as an example. However, they ran the article for half an hour with Venus Williams’ photo.

Since the reliable tennis fan shared the image on the X platform, people expressed their disappointment over an established magazine’s lack of research while writing about a prominent sports personality.

Fans slammed Variety Magazine by calling their PR “underpaid” for the Serena Williams article blunder

Since the social media post was made, fans couldn’t keep calm but express their anger on the issue. One fan lashed out at the trend of constant “engagement farming” that left people “in a chokehold these days.”

Here the fan accused the publication of desperately making the mistake to attract more attention to their article. The author of the comment also ended her opinion by stating how this is a “Next case” as the famous Williams sisters faced many such incidents in their professional careers.

In 2022, Serena Williams slammed the New York Times magazine for allegedly using her elder sister Venus Williams’ image in an article that discussed Serena Williams’ $111 million business firm, Serena Ventures.

Calling out the publication with a series of photos, Williams wrote, “No matter how far we come, we get reminded that it’s not enough,”  sharing her disappointment over the incident.

Another fan joined the bandwagon expressing similar anguish about Variety Magazine making such an unacceptable mistake in 2024. The fan wrote, “why is this still happening in…. .”

Venus Williams shared a throwback picture from her ASB Classic tour in 2015 earlier in January this year remembering how she won the tour, “This time in 2015 #auckland.” 

She further shared how the tour guide mistook her for Serena Williams, “When the tournament labeled me as @serenawilliams in the tournament guide. Quickly added 15 slams to my resume.” Despite taking it humorously, Venus Williams’ comment showcased how the sisters have faced such issues over the years.

This happened during Venus Williams’ withdrawal from the Australian Open tour in 2023. Before attending the Asia Pacific Major as a wild card, Venus Williams faced a leg injury that forced her to withdraw from the Australian Grand Slam tour last year.

A popular magazine shared the news using Serena Williams’ image. Veteran tennis player Andy Roddick also shared his disappointment on the issue and wrote on X platform, “Who’s gonna tell them that’s not Venus?”

One fan directly challenged the ethical stance of news platforms on providing authentic news expressing a sense of amusement at the fact that “these organizations ever learn,” noting that Variety made the same mistake as the New York Times.

 

Another fan commented that established publications like Variety can’t get “such a basic thing” correct. This comment highlights that both Serena and Venus Williams are popular figures, yet American magazines continue to embarrass them by misplacing their images in each other’s place. It also showed the magazine’s “poor work.”

Another fan pointed out that Variety’s “PR person is underpaid,” accusing them of using a cheap trick to bring clicks and attention to the article. Since Serena and Venus Williams are well-known to sports fans, they will likely be upset and click on the article to express their anger, which will, in return, bring more views to the article.

Nevertheless, fans’ anger over Variety Magazine’s mistake expressed how much they love the famous Williams sisters and their contributions to the sport. It also shows that fans will never let any platform diminish the legacy and fame of their favorite tennis players, no matter how many silly mistakes are made.