Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase, the current captain of the Romanian team, has been suspended by the International Tennis Federation for a number of racist and sexist comments he has made over the past week.
Nastase was suspended after he verbally abused Britain’s Johanna Konta in the Fed Cup, leaving her in tears during the match.
Johanna Konta said on Sunday that she would not “wish anyone to go through” the experience she endured on Saturday when she was verbally abused by the Romania captain, Ilie Nastase, and then the crowd in the Fed Cup World Cup play-off tie in which Great Britain were defeated by the hosts.
Players warming up again now, Niculescu having replaced Nastase on bench as ROU captain. Play had been stopped before with Konta in tears. pic.twitter.com/3Gl7ix939g
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) April 22, 2017
The Friday before the match, Nastase made a racist comment about Serena Williams’ future child.
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?”
At that same press conference, he asked British captain Anna Keothavong for her room number.
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
Keovathong later said that she felt uncomfortable by Nastase’s comments the night before.
“It wasn’t the first incident. We had the official dinner the night before, something similar happened.”
She added: “Clearly his behaviour over the weekend and leading up to it was inappropriate. “In hindsight maybe he shouldn’t have been put in that position.”
Perhaps the ITF should do more than suspend Nastase.
[Deadspin]
