Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, has taken to Twitter to criticize perceived double standards in tennis and the media after Daniil Medvedev’s latest on-court tirade – for which the Russian was fined $12,000.
Medvedev suffered a meltdown during his Australian Open semifinal clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas as he believed the Greek was receiving illegal coaching from his father Apostolos later caught barking orders from the player’s box by a hidden official.
Sharing a video of the world number two’s outburst he wrote: “A penalty… media outrage… satirical cartoons… those are all coming, right?”
“No, of course they’re not. (I have no problem with players yelling at umpires – but let them all do it – not just the white guys),” Ohanian insisted.
“The thing I wouldn’t have realized 10 years ago is that this represents something much bigger than sport, because it’s this double standard black women have to face every day at their jobs but there’s no camera rolling,” the New Yorker added.
“Love how you got your wife’s back king,” said a follower, though Ohanian was also accused of virtue signaling.
Post-match, following his 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 6-1 win which booked a place in the final with Rafael Nadal on Sunday, Medvedev admitted that he lost his head and should keep himself in check better.
“To be honest, I don’t think bad emotions help me too much,” Medvedev said. “Many times I lose the match because of this, because you lose concentration and you lose energy.
“As soon as I’ve done it, I was like, ‘that was a big mistake’, but I’m happy that I managed to re-concentrate. I lost some energy but I had to refocus, I tried my best and I’m happy it worked,” he concluded.
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