WTA: After 90 kilo criticism: Serena Williams wants to go after Ion Tiriac

Serena Williams prepares for her clay court season at her coach Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy near Nice. Starting next week, the 23-time Grand Slam winner will start at the Premier Mandatory Event in Madrid. There she will meet tournament director Ion Tiriac, who recently offended Williams. “I’ll talk to him,” she announced.

Serena Williams laughs and jokes under the French sun. The superstar is in a good mood these days. With the help of her long-term trainer Patrick Mouratoglou, she gets the finishing touches for her first sand court appearance of the season at his academy on the picturesque Riviera.

The trip to the Mutua Madrid Open, however, will probably not be in the best of moods. In the Spanish capital she wants to go after Ion Tiriac (78). And anyone who knows the impulsive American knows that the Romanian should probably dress warmly when the interview is approaching.

Tiriac, once the manager of Boris Becker, had recently slandered images of this and that in a conversation with Sport. It was also about women’s tennis in general – and then about Serena Williams in particular. “With all due respect. 36 years old, weighing 90 kilograms. I also wish for something different with the women”, Tiriac had expressed extremely disrespectful about the seven-time Wimbledon champion, who had given birth to her first child Alexis Olympia Ohanian jr. on September 1, 2017.

Maybe he just wanted to say with his sentence that he lacked personalities on the WTA tour…but not like that! The devastating verdict on Williams understandably brought a lot of criticism to the multi-billionaire multi-entrepreneur Tiriac.

And Williams announced consequences: “I will talk to him, believe me, I will talk to him”, the former number one said in an interview with the New York Times. And it sounded as if she wanted to say: “I’m going to go after Tiriac in Madrid!”

Williams emphasized that people have the right to their own opinion. “But it’s obvious that women’s tennis has more to offer than me. His commentary is unqualified and sexist – and perhaps he is an ignorant man,” she added.

Williams could also have other points on their agenda if there were a verbal exchange of views with the 78-year-old in Madrid. In the interview with Sport Bild, Tiriac had denounced, among other things, the identical prize money for women and men.

“We mix politics with business. I’m hosting the tournament in Madrid, with equal prize money for men and women. But the income from women is only 25 percent. That’s a fact. The men ask me: “Ion, how long will you keep paying the women with my money?” Tiriac had stressed. So a lot of work for Serena Williams in the days of Madrid.