Don’t slam the Williams sisters.
That’s the message being served by the United States Tennis Association, which is suing the makers of a new documentary on Venus and Serena Williams for copyright infringement, claiming they used footage — including Serena’s infamous outburst during the 2009 US Open — without permission.
“The USTA declined [the] request to include certain footage which the USTA determined was not in the best interest of the sport,” according to the complaint.
The USTA filed a suit in White Plains, NY, federal court on Friday asking for a permanent injunction against “Venus and Serena,” which is scheduled to air next month on pay-TV channel Showtime.
Pro tennis claims that broadcast journalists Maiken Baird and Michelle Major, along with VSW Productions, included footage “the USTA made clear it would not license for use in the film.”
The documentary shows Serena’s 2009 outburst at the US Open semifinals in which she waved a tennis ball at a line judge, warning she would “shove it down” her throat.
Baird and Major told The Post in a written statement, “What is the USTA afraid of? We’re shocked by this shameful effort to interfere with telling the story of the two most iconic female athletes in American history — a film that they have supported and collaborated on for years.
“In trying to censor this film about the Williams sisters the USTA is simply making up an agreement that never existed — we shot footage at the US Open with the USTA’s permission and of course never agreed to pay them for our own work,” they added.
The sisters initially helped with the making of the film before Venus reportedly withdrew her support because of the way it portrayed her father Richard Williams as a womanizer.