In Defense of Liezel Huber

"Once I got hit with a ball in the throat, and I just reacted really strongly to it. I told my opponent who hit me something really nasty, and then people got this persona and this feeling about me that I'm a mean person. So I really regret that reaction."

*—Liezel Huber, responding to this incident:

There's never a grand time, and never a bad time, to do this, and so here goes: I don't hate Liezel Huber.

I'm not sure what all the venom directed toward her on Twitter hails from, but I'm also not ignorant. I know there have been a few on- and off-court spats that haven't seen her coming up roses in the wake, but on the whole, I have found her to be an agreeable, kind, and just real person and player. She's a patient interviewee, and a colleague of mine vouches for that: Once she talked to Huber in an empty locker room late in the evening at the Cincinnati WTA stop. This just two years ago, and Huber thanked her for the interview after they had finished.

Yes, sadly, this was most unfortunate at January's Australian Open:

Noticeably, Huber's partner Lisa Raymond stayed silent on that one. Unfortunately, her then-foe Elena Vesnina chose to trash Huber later via Twitter. As Jon Wertheim at Sports Illustratedrecently said, it is good to give Huber the benefit of the doubt on that one. Granted, it wasn't the closest close call ever. Still, again in her defense, I have run up on a short ball before, seeing red over the idea of losing the point—let alone a match point—and have struggled to discern whether it bounced twice, or for that matter whether it landed inside the line. In the end, the onus was on the chair umpire for that call—and, as with so many calls by officials during Aussie-gate 2012, he blew it.

We are all too human. And in that humanness, we relish in scapegoating one who seems ripe for it. Says here it's worth giving a rest until she does something truly mean and boorish (or, well, again). As Wertheim did so well to note—typical from him—she once had quite the drama with Nadia Petrova—and they went on to become doubles partners.

In closing, here's Huber in happy times, and the quote that I led with is featured here:

Items of note: Her response when asked, "Do you prefer doubles because you can blame someone else?" Also, funny that she has a lot of love for the Radwanska sisters. And quite telling that she says the word "relax" is foreign to her. In any event, just try to view this video and not come away with an appreciation of the woman and player who is notching some high-quality doubles victories after age 35.

—Jonathan Scott (Follow me on Twitter @jonscott9.)