WORLD No. 1 Serena Williams slammed Shamil Tarpishchev for using “extremely sexist, racist and bullying” comments after the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) president described her and sister Venus as the “Williams brothers.”

    The WTA fined Tarpishchev US$25,000 and disqualified him from working in an organizational capacity for a year Saturday after he made the comments on Russian State Television on Friday.

    Tarpishchev, who is also an International Olympic Committee member, made an official apology later Saturday but that was not enough for a clearly unhappy Williams.

    “I thought they were very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist at the same time. I thought they were in a way bullying,” Williams told reporters in Singapore yesterday.

    WTA chief executive Stacy Allaster said the comments were “insulting, demeaning and have absolutely no place on our sport.”(SD-Agencies)