Former Australian tennis player Sam Groth has doubled down on his criticism of Serena Williams, saying the 23 time Grand Slam champion was condescedning in her comments towards Ash Barty.
Groth caused headlines around the world last week when he lashed out at Williams in a newspaper column.
Writing in reaction to Williams apparently not knowing Barty was the new world number one, Groth didn't pull any punches.
"As one of the biggest names in tennis, what Serena said was pretty shitty," Groth wrote.
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"Claiming she didn't know Ash was number one - I don't care if it was a genuine error or not. In fact if it was genuine it's actually worse.
"You're the one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet and you can't tell me who the number one player in your sport is? It's disgraceful and not a good look for your sport."
The comments caused widespread condemnation across the tennis world, with a who's who of commenters taking Groth to task.
Asked about the reaction to his column, Groth didn't back away from his stance.
"The way she reacted to the initial question...I think if you're one of the greatest sports people of all time, men or women - this is one hundred percent my opinion and I'll stand by it - if you're an icon of your sport and you have the chance to pump up the future of the sport, the current world number one...whether Serena knew or not, that reaction, to call Ash 'nice' and 'cute,' she had the chance to say Ash was a fantastic tennis player," Groth said on Sports Sunday on Channel Nine.
"She's great person for the sport, but she didn't. She called her nice and cute and didn't acknowledge that she was the best player in the world.
"She called her nice and cute and didn't acknowledge that she was the best player the world, I thought that was pretty condescending"
— Wide World of Sports (@wwos) July 7, 2019
Sam Groth SLAMS Serena Williams for snubbing Ash Barty.#9SportsSunday | @Channel9#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/xbZ2FtZdux
"I thought that was honestly pretty condescending."
Groth revealed that he was actually writing a different column, before he was sidetracked.
"I was writing an article about the things other Australian players could learn from Ash's journey," he said.
"That's what the article started as.
"It sort of went off on a little bit of a tangent with my editor. I said about half way through 'you don't care about the other stuff, do you?'
"They said 'nope, we've got our story now, here we go.'"
Groth did take the criticism in stride, saying he probably won't be exchanging niceties with Williams any time soon.
"I won't be taking Andy Murray's spot as her mixed doubles partner any time soon," he joked.
"I'm under the pump."
