Gorilla for Serena: When will racist comments be smashed out of tennis?

ESPN tennis pundit Doug Adler has been sacked after his outrageous comment on Serena Williams. ESPN has come up with an apology and said that the commentator should have been more careful with his words.

Racism is definitely not new in the world of sports. Recently, Serene Williams was compared to ‘Gorilla’ by an ESPN commentator Doug Adler during her Round of 64 fixture at the Australian Open 2017. It is indeed sad to come across such events as this is not the first time this has happened.

Tennis fans all over the world went berserk on social media. Almost all of them urged ESPN to sack the tennis pundit who made that outrageous comment on the world no. 1.

However, this outrage has actually worked and ESPN has sacked the 58-year old Adler. But the pundit has come out and said he did not use ‘gorilla’ but he tried to say ‘guerrilla.’ This justification is probably not enough. On top of it, ESPN came out with a statement saying that Adler should have been more careful with his words.

In fact, Adler has come up with an on air apology but that is not really going to suffice. Indian tennis star Sania Mirza had faced something similar in the past as well. The point being – why the female athletes are being made the target of racism and sexism? Will it ever stop? Because if it does not, the spirit of the game is never going to be lifted.