Tennis: Tennis star faces ban after insulting female players

The former tennis star Ilie Nastase, already under investigation for making a racist jibe about the colour of Serena Williams’s unborn baby, provoked further uproar on Saturday after calling Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong and player Johanna Konta “f------ b------”.

The new insult from Nastase led to him being thrown off the court, and Great Britain’s Fed Cup play-off against Romania was suspended, with Konta visibly traumatised and in tears. She later resumed and won the match.

The latest controversy to engulf the 70-year-old former world No 1 erupted after he became embroiled in a row about noise from the crowd.

Nastase, who is Romania’s Fed Cup captain, now faces a lengthy ban from tennis. He was heard to say to the umpire: “What’s your f------ problem?” before hurling abuse at the British pair.

He was sent from the grounds by the umpire for “serious misconduct” as Romanian No 1 Simona Halep appealed for the crowd to calm.

The former tennis star Ilie Nastase, already under investigation for making a racist jibe about the colour of Serena Williams’s unborn baby, provoked further uproar on Saturday after calling Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong and player Johanna Konta “f------ b------”.

The new insult from Nastase led to him being thrown off the court, and Great Britain’s Fed Cup play-off against Romania was suspended, with Konta visibly traumatised and in tears. She later resumed and won the match.

The latest controversy to engulf the 70-year-old former world No 1 erupted after he became embroiled in a row about noise from the crowd.

Nastase, who is Romania’s Fed Cup captain, now faces a lengthy ban from tennis. He was heard to say to the umpire: “What’s your f------ problem?” before hurling abuse at the British pair.

He was sent from the grounds by the umpire for “serious misconduct” as Romanian No 1 Simona Halep appealed for the crowd to calm.

Nastase himself was not asked about Williams on Friday but made the comment, in Romanian and clearly audible, to the other players while Halep was answering a question about Williams, the 23-time grand slam singles champion.

Halep, the world No 5, who had asked for Nastase to be made captain, later seemed to play down the offending comments, saying: “He’s joking all the time, and I’m 100% that that was a joke."

“I don’t believe that was something bad coming from him, but I think he was not respectful a little bit with his comment [about Williams’s unborn baby]. But we cannot get upset with Ilie, he’s like that and he’s the same with us.”

The Guardian