Tennis might be the top international sport for women, but it’s still a bastion of sexism, as two-time majors champion Ilie Nastase reminded us this weekend.
The former world №1 began the weekend as captain of the Romanian Fed Cup team, which hosted Great Britain in the international team competition for women — think the World Cup, only with a far more fragmented, nonsensical schedule.
But Nastase was quickly removed from the weekend’s festivities in disgrace after making public sexual advances towards a female tennis coach, harassing a female reporter in the press room, making racist remarks about Serena Williams’ baby, and verbally assaulting players on Great Britain’s team during a match on Saturday.
Despite being kicked off the grounds at that point, he didn’t go quietly into the night. He brazenly marched back onto the tournament site during the matches on Sunday, and had to be kicked off again. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has issued him a provisional suspension.
This all began at the draw ceremony on Thursday, when Nastase asked Great Britain Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong — who happens to be married and pregnant — for her room number during an official dinner for the event, according to ESPN.
The next day at the draw ceremony, during the ceremonial handshake between the two captains, he repeated the request — this time in front of cameras while he put his arm around her shoulder and drew her close to him. “We keep being attracted,” he said.
Eleanor Crooks, a tennis correspondent for the Press Association, shared the harassment on social media.
Here's Nastase asking Keothavong for her room number. You'll have to lip read but it's not difficult pic.twitter.com/uft5uzoblK
— Eleanor Crooks (@EleanorcrooksPA) April 21, 2017
Later, during a press conference, one of the Romanian players was asked about Serena Williams’ pregnancy, which was announced late last week. Nastase, who wasn’t even the one being asked the question, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a racist remark.
“Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?” he said in Romanian. (Williams’ fiancé, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, is white.)
After that, the ITF announced it was launching an investigation into Nastase’s comments, saying that it “doesn’t tolerate discriminatory and offensive language and behavior of any kind.”
But Nastase wasn’t done wreaking havoc.
The Tennis Hall of Fame member, who was also elected to the Romanian Senate in 2012, barged into the media center on Saturday morning looking specifically for British reporters. He came across Crooks, who was the only reporter there at the time, and angrily confronted her about her reporting.
“Why did you write that? You’re stupid, you’re stupid,” he said.
Once the matches finally got underway, Nastase took his abuse to an even bigger stage. Captains are allowed on the court during Fed Cup matches, and with British player Johanna Konta leading Romanian player Sorana Cirstea on Saturday, Nastase called both Konta and Keothavong “fucking bitches” twice.
As he was being escorted out by security, he had yet another run-in with Crooks.
My second run-in with Ilie Nastase. He then called me ugly off camera, just for good measure pic.twitter.com/pt2begOpTx
— Eleanor Crooks (@EleanorcrooksPA) April 22, 2017
On Sunday, the 70-year-old returned to the VIP restaurant on site, but was ordered to leave.
His sexist, racist tirades overshadowed a remarkable weekend for the Romanians, who ended up beating Great Britain in three matches to advance in Fed Cup play.
I hope #IlieNastase is never & I repeat NEVER allowed on a tennis court representing Romania ever again at @FedCup or @DavisCup level! Ever!
— rennae stubbs (@rennaestubbs) April 22, 2017
Tennis is typically hailed as one of the most progressive sports, thanks primarily to Billie Jean King’s trailblazing equal-pay advocacy. But as Nastase showed the world this weekend, the sport still has an alarming amount of sexism and bigotry in its top ranks.
Just 14 months ago, Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore made waves when he said that women’s tennis rides “on the coattails of the men,” and that women’s tennis players should “go down every night on [their] knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born.”
Last May, another Romanian tennis legend, Ion Tiriac, told New York Times reporter Ben Rothenberg that he prefers to look at women on court because “they are beautiful,” but didn’t believe they deserve equal prize money. (He’s not alone in thinking women don’t deserve equal pay — many top male stars have complained about it as well.)
Tennis Tournament Owner Admires Long Legs Of Female Players, But Doesn’t Support Equal PayJust two months after recently-ousted Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore ignited a firestorm by saying that women’s tennis…www.google.comThese comments are alarming by themselves, but the fact that they’re coming from men who are in charge of significant women’s tennis tournaments—or even coaching women’s players—is proof that tennis still has a long way to go before it roots out systematic sexism.
Nastase send Keothavong flowers on Sunday, presumably to apologize, but it’s going to take a lot more than a bouquet to bounce back from this.
UPDATE: On Monday afternoon, Serena Williams responded to Nastase’s comments in a powerful Instagram post that condemned his “racist comments towards myself and unborn child, and sexist comments against my peers,” while discussing how many barriers still need to be broken down in society.
She also quoted Maya Angelou, and offered her “full support” in the ITF investigation
“You may shoot me with your words … you my try to kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air, I rise,” she writes.
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Nastase, meanwhile, has refused to apologize for any of his actions. He said he doesn’t “know what all the fuss is about” in regards to the backlash to his comments about Serena’s baby, and he doubled down on his on-court actions as well.
“I don’t regret it and they can send me to prison if they want — I don’t care,” he said as reported by the Daily Mirror.
“I was just trying to promote the interest of my girl. The English player just stormed off without even asking permission to leave the court and I admit that’s when I called her a bitch.”