Tennis great Rafael Nadal has taken a swing at Aussie tennis star Ashleigh Barty in a press conference that was quickly labelled both ‘disrespectful’ and ‘sexist’.
WATCH: The moment Rafael Nadal takes a swipe at Ash Barty
The Grand Slam organisers have been called out this year for their apparent sexism after the world No. 1 and French Open champion played just one of her four games at Wimbledon on the centre court.
Ash Barty didn’t even make it to Court 2 for the first two rounds at the All England Club.
The Australian lost to American Alison Riske last night in an utterly thrilling showdown, which prompted fans of the sport to ask – yet again – why the two women weren’t playing on centre court instead of Nadal’s mismatched game.
After being asked this very question by a reporter, Nadal frankly said: “I am the world No. 2 and I won 18 grand slams.”
When the Spaniard was questioned further Nadal pulled no punches, claiming that he is ‘a little bit more’ than Ash Barty.
“In the world of tennis today, honestly, my feeling is today I am a little bit more than Ashleigh Barty, even if Ashleigh Barty is the first player of the world and she already won in the French Open and she is playing unbelievable good.
“But we can’t create polemics every single day about decisions that they have to take. At the end of the day they have to make a decision.
“A day like today, everybody is playing, of course Djokovic is not playing in the Centre Court.
Forever a class act, Barty stayed diplomatic in her response to Nadal’s uncalled for comments.
“Scheduling is out of my control,” she said.
“I’ll play on any court I’m scheduled on.”
