Serena Williams, one of the highest ranked female tennis players in the world, has accused the head of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpischev of making "extremely sexist" and "racist" comments about her and her sister Venus recently.
Earlier in the month, the 66-years-old Russian tennis veteran was at a talk show with former Olympian Elena Dementieva when he made the unsavory comments.
Tarpischev, who dashed in with a quick response to a question directed at Dementieva about what it felt like to play against the William sisters, described Serena Williams and her sister Venus as the 'Williams brothers.' He went on to say that "It's scary when you really look at them."
Serena Williams has noted that she "thought they [his comments] were in a way bullying. I've done the best that I can do, and that's all I can say. So I just wasn't very happy with his comments. I think a lot of people weren't happy as well..."
Over the weekend, the World Tennis Association (WTA) suspended Tarpischev and fined him about $25,000 for his comments about Serena Williams and her sister.
Meanwhile, the head of the WTA, Stacey Allaster, has noted that 'The WTA was founded on principles of equality, opportunity and respect and Venus and Serena embody all of these attributes. Mr. Tarpischev's statement questioning their genders tarnish out great game and two of our champions. His derogatory remarks deserve to be condemned and he will be sanctioned."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also revealed that it "will directly contact Mr. Tarpischev to ask him for a full explanation of his comments."
Serena Williams has admitted that she thought the WTA did a wonderful job in "making sure that in this day and age, 2014, for someone with his power, it's really unacceptable to make such bullying remarks."
Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova has also condemned Tarpischev's statement and praised the WTA's punitive actions against him.
In his defense, Tarpischev has since apologized and explained that his comments, which were "said without meaning to cause offense", have been blown out of proportion.
"I am sorry that the joke I made, when translated into English, was taken out of the context of a chat show and so much attention has been brought towards it," he said.
Serena Williams has had a rather lackluster season. But the current number 1 female tennis player in the world won her first match at the WTA Finals on Monday after easing off Ana Ivanovic with a scoreline of 6-4,6-4.
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