Aussie Tennis great Todd Woodbridge has blasted basketball star Liz Cambage

Aussie tennis champion Todd Woodbridge has launched a stunning attack on Liz Cambage, pointing out hidden victims in her Olympics threat.

Aussie tennis champion Todd Woodbridge has launched a stunning attack on Aussie basketball star Liz Cambage over her Olympics threat this week.

Cambage has made headlines around the world after sensationally declaring she won’t play for Australia at the 2021 Olympics in Japan as a result of an Olympics team photo furore.

Cambage on Saturday dragged a coach and past players into her controversy, claiming to have received threats.

The 29-year-old started a conversation around Australia when she took issue with the athletes chosen to represent Australia in promotional photo shoots ahead of the Games.

The WNBA star has been the Australian Opals’ leader in recent years but has had enough of people of colour not being fairly represented.

Cambage caused a storm when she shared images from the Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams uniform unveiling. She slammed the photos for a lack of diversity.

Woodbridge became one of the highest profile critics of Cambage’s public statements on Sunday when he declared the WNBA star had “disrespected” the athletes involved in the photo shoot by showing her “anger”.

He said making her protest in such a public way was not the right way to go about it.

“My initial thought was, don’t do it that way,” Woodbridge said on Channel 9’s Sports Sunday.

“Why do it that way? Why do it with the anger and the threats? You cannot threaten to pull out of representing your country, you’ve got the privilege to be there and to do something special.

“If you want to do something like that, why don’t you do it the way Naomi Osaka did it? I mean, she changed the world. She didn’t have to get out there and use language and threaten us all that we’ve done the wrong thing.

“I’d say, good on you for standing up for it but there are ways. We’ve got another great ambassador here in Australia we just spoke about, Ash Barty; she does it the right way. That’s not her style.”

Barty is a proud Indigenous Australian.

“I just believe there was a bit of disrespect for the athletes in the photo, who rightfully deserved to be in that photo,” Woodbridge said.

Cambage has represented Australia in the previous two Olympics, and has a bronze medal to show for it. Woodbridge represented Australia at the Olympics with partner Mark Woodforde in the men’s doubles. They won the gold medal in 1996 and silver in 2000.

Liz Cambage takes aim at the whitewashing.

In the wake of her threat, Cambage doubled down on her anger Friday night, taking to her Instagram Stories to call on Australia to “wake the f**k up”.

Cambage also revealed on Saturday she has been abused by people on social media following her public comments.

Her explosive claims include a suggestion a coach and former players were among the people to have criticised her as a result of her stand.

Australia’s most successful women’s coach Tom Maher on Friday labelled Cambage “inappropriate” for threatening to boycott the Tokyo Olympics.

Maher, who coached the Australian women’s side to their first Olympic medal (bronze) at the 1996 Atlanta Games and a silver at Sydney 2000, believes Cambage shouldn’t have used social media to air her concerns.

“It is inappropriate to make such a big deal out of pretty much nothing,” said Maher, who also won a record nine WNBL titles.

Liz Cambage keeps calling out haters. Photo: ecambage

Liz Cambage posts a screenshot on Instagram. Photo: ecambage

Hours later, Cambage captioned one photo of her sticking her tongue out on her Instagram stories: “I DO NOT CARE FOR A WHITE MAN’S OPINION ON RACIAL ISSUES. NEVER HAVE. NEVER WILL”.

She followed it with another post to suggest her comment was in regards to criticism she had received from a coach and past players.

“Especially when the comments come from one of the most abusive coaches I have ever had and past players no one cares about,” she wrote.

A third post gave a warning to online trolls that there are avenues for her to track social media users sending her threats online.

“Keep the threats coming boys,” she wrote on a screen shot image.

Maher coached Cambage at the Bulleen Boomers and famously challenged her to get back in shape after arriving back in Australia following the WNBA season in 2011.

Cambage admitted at the time she was “unfit” after “sitting on the bench and eating American food”.

The pair combined to lead the Boomers to the WNBL championship that season with Cambage being awarded as the WNBL’s MVP.

Cambage took issue with the athletes selected to represent Australia in promotional shoots.

Cambage hit out at the lack of diversity.

The AOC had responded earlier on Friday.

“The athletes made available to Jockey could and should have better reflected the rich diversity of athletes who represent Australia at the Olympic Games,” a spokesman said.

“The AOC does however have a very proud history of celebrating and promoting diversity in all its forms. From Indigenous reconciliation, people of colour, gender equality and all forms of diversity, the AOC is rightly proud of its record.”

It’s not the first time Cambage has taken aim over issues of race in Australia with the Las Vegas Aces WNBA star sending a fiery message to Australian “allies” last year in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd and black deaths in custody.