Serena Williams brutal response to sexist comments from Indian Wells official

SERENA Williams has issued a brutal response to a tennis official over his unbelievable comments about female players.

INDIAN WELLS, CA - MARCH 20: Serena Williams of the United States reacts after a lost point as she loses to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the WTA Singles Final during day fourteen of the 2016 BNP Parisbas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 20, 2016 in Indian Wells, California. Harry How/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

MINUTES after her finals loss at Indian Wells, Serena Williams blasted the event’s tournament director, Raymond Moore, who has come under fire for some outdated, sexist comments.

Moore insinuated the survival of women’s tennis depends on male stars such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

While Twitter was bustling at the comments and issuing armchair anger toward Moore, Serena got up on the dais and basically dropped the mic on him.

Moore was asked about the importance of his tournament for the WTA and took the question in another direction:

“No, I think the WTA — you know, in my next life when I come back I want to be someone in the WTA, (laughter) because they ride on the coat-tails of the men,” he said.

“They don’t make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very very lucky.

The champ.

“If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport. They really have.”

But, oh, Moore wasn’t done. It’s as if he was trying to dig his way out of his comments, but only by commenting on the “attractive prospects” on the WTA and naming two women who are good players who could one day carry the torch held by Serena and Sharapova, but also happen to be two or the more physically attractive women on Tour, a fact that led to the awkward exchange below.

More from Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore this morning, further down his remarks: pic.twitter.com/nXNATitvrR

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) March 20, 2016

Then out came Serena, like a boss.

“Well I don’t understand why I always have to answer questions about controversy like this,” she said.

“Obviously I don’t think any woman should be down on their knees thanking anybody like that.

“I think Venus, myself, a number of players have been... if I could tell you every day how many people say they don’t watch tennis unless they’re watching myself or my sister, I couldn’t even bring up that number. So I don’t think that is a very accurate statement.

Seriously?

“I think there is a lot of women out there who are very exciting to watch.

“I think there are a lot of men out there who are exciting to watch. I think it definitely goes both ways. I think those remarks are very much mistaken and very, very, very inaccurate.”

When asked if Moore’s comments could have been misunderstood, Serena again fried the tournament official.

“If you read the transcript, you can only interpret it in one way,” she said.

“I speak very good English. I’m sure he does too.

“There’s only one way to interpret that. Get on your knees, which is offensive enough, and thank a man, which is not — we as women, have come a long way. We shouldn’t have to drop to our knees at any point.

“If someone makes irrational comments or if something unfortunate goes on in the sport, you know, everyone hears about it. I’m on social media enough to hear about it.”

Boom.

Winner.

Saying that “a lady player” should thank Federer and Nadal for keeping the sport going under is something that, if phrased in a way that didn’t sound like a quote from 1954, might be a reasonable statement.

Wrong, but reasonable. But it is wrong, because Serena has been around far longer than Federer and Nadal and has carried women’s tennis just as much as they’ve carried men’s — probably more, in fact. Serena said it herself: How many new fans did she and Venus bring into tennis? Federer and Nadal may have kept fans around.

Serena brought them in. I mean, in that brief era between Sampras/Agassi, when people wondered whether tennis was going to be able to find a new breed of men’s star, it was Serena and Venus who drew attention to the women’s game.

Every tennis player, man or woman, should be thanking the sport’s stars (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and, yes, Serena, Venus and Sharapova).

They move the needle, get TV contracts signed and increase prize money. This is true of every sport. NBAers owe a ton to Bird, Magic and Jordan.

Every golfer is indebted to Tiger Woods for his impact on the sport and its financial strength. The statement is fine when it’s applicable, but suggesting that the WTA would somehow be on sports welfare without top men’s players isn’t applicable.

Classic.

There are differences between men’s and women’s tennis though.

The WTA is poorly run. And through every metric, men’s tennis is more popular than women’s. Serena mentioned that the women’s U.S. Open final sold out last year before the men’s final, which was impressive, but the fact that such a story was newsworthy only reinforces that point.

Just because football is more popular than baseball doesn’t mean Bryce Harper needs to thank Tom Brady for keeping sports in the limelight. Women’s tennis does just fine and, frankly, Indian Wells should be thanking Serena for returning to the tournament 14 years after an ugly racial incident there and surely raising the tourney’s profile (not to mention giving it a ton of free publicity), not rudely insinuating she owes anything to men’s players she preceded in the limelight by a half-decade.

At least Moore, who somehow was prominently featured in both trophy ceremonies after the controversy erupted, exhibited at least one bit of good sense on Sunday (or simply sensed the story was about to blow up) and issued an apology for his crass statement:

A hasty apology from Raymond Moore, on his "extremely poor taste and erroneous" comments from hours ago. pic.twitter.com/I4u935JRjJ

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) March 20, 2016

It came as Novak Djokovic waded into the controversy with a bumbling response to the ongoing issue of equal prize money between men and women.

Djokovic says men should be awarded more prize money than women because of data suggesting the men’s game is responsible for generating a higher share of revenue made across the sport’s many organisations.

“I think that our men’s tennis world, our ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches,” he said.

“I think that’s one of the, you know, reasons why maybe we should get awarded more.

“We can’t complain because we also have great prize money in men’s tennis.

“Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve.”

Novak Djokovic weighs in on Ray Moore's remarks, equal prize money, and…female hormones? This was…not his best work. pic.twitter.com/dauOSP7iru

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) March 20, 2016

Djokovic also expressed his respect for the players on the WTA Tour for the way they are able to deal with “hormones”.

“Their bodies are much different than men’s bodies,” he said.

“They have to go through a lot of different things that we don’t have to go through. You know, the hormones and different stuff, we don’t have to go into details. Ladies know what I’m talking about.”

Originally published as Serena Williams brutal response to sexist comments from Indian Wells official