Serena Williams has hit back at the President of the Russian Tennis Federation for referring to her and her sister as ''brothers''. And that she supports the one year ban placed on him.
"I think the WTA did a great job of taking (the) initiative and taking immediate action to his comments," Williams said Sunday in Singapore ahead of her WTA Finals defence. "I thought they were very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist at the same time. I thought they were in a way bullying. "
Shamil Tarpischev who was also fined $25,000 for the derogatory comments also said the sisters were ''scary''.
When asked by journalists if he regrets the comments, he said the programme where he made the comments was a humorous show. The Russian Tennis Federation has come out to deny any malicious intent on the part of Shamil.
Tarpischev has been the chairman of the Kremlin Cup (Russian's only WTA event) for the past 18 years and is also a member of the International Olympic Committee. He was the personal tennis coach to the former Russian president Boris Yaltsin.
He made the derogatory comments during an appearance on a Russian talk show; when asked what it was like to paly against the Williams sisters, he called them ''brothers'' and said they were scary.
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