Romanian tennis captain Ilie Nastase makes racist comment about Serena Williams’ pregnancy

Ilie Nastase was a number one ranked tennis star back in the 1970’s. And given his recent behavior, something tells me he rooted for Bobby Riggs to beat Billie Jean King in the Battle of the Sexes.

Nastase is the Romanian captain in the Fed Cup and made a racist comment about Serena Williams’ pregnancy. In a press conference, No. 5 ranked Simona Halep was answering questions about Serena and Nastase was overheard saying “Let’s see what color it has. Chocolate with milk?”

Serena is going to take off the rest of the year to have her baby with her fiancee, Alexis Ohanian, who is white. Apparently, Nastase left his views back with his playing days and has issues with interracial children.

And if you thought this was the only time Nastase said something controversial, you would be mistaken. In fact, it’s not even the first time Nastase said something controversial about Serena Williams. Just a few weeks ago, Nastase claimed that Serena was doping simply because of her physique and no other evidence.

It’s also not the only controversial thing Nastase did this weekend. Nastase was removed from the court for unsportsmanlike conduct in a match between Romanian Sorana Cirstea and Englishwoman Johanna Konta. Nastase went into a tirade after a controversial call asking the umpire “What’s your fucking problem?” He also called Konta and Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong “fucking bitches.” Konta left the court in tears and after a 20 minute delay, came back and won the match.

This also isn’t the first time Nastase did something inappropriate toward Keothavong. Earlier this week, Nastase repeatedly asked for Keothavong’s room number and made inappropriate comments at her as the media took pictures. Keothavong is 18 weeks pregnant and married and didn’t much appreciate Nastase telling her “We keep being attracted.”

Nastase has a reputation for being a womanizer. He has been married four times and has claimed to have sex with between 800 and 900 women. I can’t really be shocked that someone who treats women as sex objects and be married that many times to have that kind of viewpoint of women. The Romanian tennis federation didn’t comment but the International Tennis Federation is investigating.

[ESPN]