DUBAI: Serena Williams has spoken out about comments made by the now-suspended Fed Cup captain Ilie Nastase regarding the skin color of her unborn child.
The tennis champion announced she was pregnant last week via Snapchat and Nastase reacted by asking if the child would be the color of milk chocolate as Williams is black and her fiancé, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is white.
The 23-time major champion wrote on Instagram on Monday: “It disappoints me to know we live in a society where people like Ilie Nastase can make such racist comments toward myself and (my) unborn child.”
Williams also referred to Nastase’s “sexist comments against my peers” — a reference to his verbal abuse directed at British player Johanna Konta, British captain Anne Keothavong and the chair umpire during Fed Cup matches over the weekend. He was ejected from the Romania vs. Britain contest and provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Federation.
Williams said: “I humbly thank the ITF for any consideration given to all the facts in this case. They will have my full support.”
She also wrote: “I have said it once and I’ll say it again, this world has come so far but yet we have so much further to go. Yes, we have broken down so many barriers- however there are a plethora more to go. This or anything else will not stop me from pouring love, light and positivity into everything that I do. I will continue to take a lead and stand up for what’s right.”
Nastase, for his part, was unrepentant, saying that he didn’t believe his remarks at a news conference Friday about Williams’ baby were racist.
“I want to know what word I used is racist?” he said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Budapest, Hungary.
As for what happened during the matches against Britain, Nastase acknowledged: “Yes, I lost my temper.”
But he called his punishment “crazy.”
(With the Associated Press)
