Cape Town - A tennis journalist has apologised for his conduct during an interview with Serena Williams that suggested the 23-time Grand Slam champion was intimidated by Maria Sharapova’s looks.
Bill Simons, of Inside Tennis magazine, was labelled as sexist after calling the mother-of-one “baby” and claiming Serena was intimidated by her opponent's “alluring” shoulders.
In response to his actions, Bill took to twitter to apologise and spoke of his admiration of Serena.
“I apologise if my awkward ques seemed 2 empower Trump or attack Serena/ I SO admire her/ I've spent [my] lifetime fighting racism/ sexism/ homophobia,” he explained.
SEE THE FULL APOLOGY HERE:
In the interview with Serena, Bill encouraged the tennis star to quickly answer his questions because he believed she wanted to rush home to be with her nine-month-old daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.
Trying to encourage her, Bill said: “Work with me here, please. We're in this together, baby.”
He then questioned her feelings towards long-time rival and drugs cheat Maria Sharapova, saying: “After the 2004 Wimbledon match with Maria, I had the opportunity to interview Donald Trump on his [Los Angeles] golf course, and he said that Maria's shoulders were incredibly alluring. And then he came up with this extraordinary analysis: That you were intimidated by her supermodel good looks. My question is: Have you ever been intimidated by anyone on a tennis court, and what are your thoughts about the occurrence?”
An unimpressed Serena responded by saying: “I honestly don't have any thoughts about that. I can't say I have been intimidated by anyone. That's all. That's it.”
Twitter users were quick to call out Bill for his interview style during the awkward exchange.
SEE REACTIONS HERE:
