Just two days after the conclusion of the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, the CEO of the event has stepped down following comments he made about female tennis player.
The CEO of the Indian Wells event, Raymond Moore said that women’s tennis “rides on the coat-tails”of men and went ahead to also say that “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank god that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport. They really have.”
Raymond Moore’s comments were echoed by the winner of the BNP Paribas event Novak Djokovic in an interview with The Guardian on Sunday.
The women’s world number one, Serena Williams called his comments “offensive and very inaccurate”. Serena said,
“Obviously I don’t think any woman should be down on their knees thanking anybody like that.”
“I think Venus [Williams], myself, a number of players have been – if I could tell you every day how many people say they don’t watch tennis unless they’re watching myself or my sister, I couldn’t even bring up that number.
“So I don’t think that is a very accurate statement. I think there is a lot of women out there who are more – are very exciting to watch. I think there are a lot of men out there who are exciting to watch. I think it definitely goes both ways. I think those remarks are very much mistaken and very, very, very inaccurate.”
The United States Tennis Association tagged his comments as “sexist”. The 69 year old Raymond Moore has stepped down this morning and has apologised for his comments which he now admits were in ‘poor taste’
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