Ten days ago none of us outside the tennis world had even heard of them. Now we know all about them. Perhaps. But not likely.

No matter, one is a white, female Latvian racist, even if she insists she’s not. The other is a black, female American victim of racism, even if there’s no proof beyond a wishful and distant maybe.

We’ve seen such media rushes to harsh, defamatory and lasting judgments before. And they’re not only wrong, they’re hideously wrong, life-afflicting wrong and only the victims of the lies pay the price.

From Tawana Brawley to the Duke lacrosse team. And in tennis, former ESPN analyst Doug Adler remains sentenced to life for a bogus tweet from a reckless New York Times stringer, the panicked cowardice of ESPN and a silent, reliably frightened media starting — and continuing — with the normally bold and outspoken ESPN center-courter stagers, John McEnroe and Chris Evert.