You probably haven’t heard of him, but tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase has crossed way too many people in the span of a few days, including our beloved mom-to-be Serena Williams.
The retired Romanian player who was ranked no. 1 in the ’70s is currently the captain of the Romanian Fed Cup team. During events for a Fed Cup tennis competition over the weekend, the 70-year-old made some very disrespectful comments that drew quite a bit of ire. According to Deadspin, on Friday he asked a married and pregnant Anne Keothavong, the captain for Great Britain, for her hotel room number.
During competition on Saturday in a match between Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Great Britain’s Johanna Konta, Nastase was accused of verbally “abusing” Konta and Keothavong. When both women complained to officials about noise from the crowd, Nastase went toe to toe with them, cursing and even calling them “f–king b—hes.” He was removed from the court for his comments and caused play to be suspended.
But if that wasn’t bad enough, when Romanian player Simona Halep was asked a question about Williams on Friday, Nastase interrupted to comment on her pregnancy saying, “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?” When a journalist named Eleanor Crooks reported his comments, Nastase is said to have asked her “Why did you write that?” and called her “stupid” while ranting for two minutes. The International Tennis Federation decided to suspend him from all events for the time being while he is investigated for all the hell he raised over the weekend.
As for Williams, she caught wind of Nastase’s comments and decided to respond yesterday with a note on Instagram, calling his statements toward her and her unborn child racist as well as his commentary about her colleagues sexist:
But Nastase contends that the “chocolate milk” comment wasn’t racist. He tried to defend himself earlier today in an interview with a Romanian news website.
“If I said she would have an ugly, black baby, that would have been racist.”
I guess Nastase just doesn’t know when to close his mouth.
Images via WENN
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