He received a one-year suspension imposed by the Women’s Tennis Association for the comments and was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.
Serena, who suffered a knee injury in the China open, is playing Dementieva in the WTA Finals, she responded to the comments saying, “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.”
In a statement later released by the Russian Tennis Federation, Tarpischev denied any “malicious intent” and said his quotes had been taken out of context.
