Jon Wertheim:

"Apart from playing peerless tennis, the three-time defending champ has an uncommon knack for saying and doing the right things. He is not, however, infallible, as evidenced by his press conference on Monday.

After dusting Scoville Jenkins, Federer was asked what he knew about Althea Gibson. Federer responded: "I don't know. You're putting me on the spot. I don't know what you're talking about." Nudged by the "hint" that she was being honored later in the evening, he still drew a blank. "It's before my time. Isn't much I can really say about it. I don't know, I'm sorry."

Allowing for the fact that Federer is a tennis player and not a historian -- and he grew up in a foreign country (Switzerland) where the Civil Rights movement might not be part of the curriculum -- his remarks were surprisingly tone-deaf.

This isn't a politically correct cant. It's simply that a tennis purist who hates instant replay, a traditionalist who reveres Rod Laver, ought to have at least heard of a pioneering Wimbledon champ, particularly when her name has been inescapable at this event. I suppose that in a way, this opens a window into just how "tunneled" a top-tier athlete must be."

Your criticism, if I may call it that, comes across really thin. These guys play events worldwide honoring men/women from different walks of life -- if they have to learn about the person behind each such tribute, they would be better suited to be an historian. Very few people are that curious. Even in today's PC America, most people probably cannot name civil rights leaders prior to ML King.

Basically, you are taking the easy road out by pinning it on tunnel vision, instead of pointing out the USTA/WTAs lack of efforts (until this tournament) in spreading the word on Gibson and why her feat was remarkable. Even now, to me, the tribute is a bit shallow, more theater than substance. If the public were to find how Gibson lived after her tennis years, the US tennis establishment would come out looking rather pale. Let's clean our house first before criticizing foreign players for not recognizing/appreciating our pioneers.