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Serena Williams' husband calls out Roger Federer over sexism saga

Alexis Ohanian has been slammed on the social media platform he founded after dragging Roger Federer into the Serena Williams saga.

Serena’s husband continues to express his thought’s about his wife’s controversial meltdown in the US Open final.

After slamming an Australian cartoonist’s ‘racist’ depiction of Serena, he then called out the New York Times over ‘misleading’ stats that purportedly smashed Serena’s claims of sexism.

And now he’s called out Federer.

Serena’s husband has dragged Federer into the saga. Image: Getty
Serena’s husband has dragged Federer into the saga. Image: Getty

Ohanian took to Twitter recently to seemingly support his wife’s claims that women are treated more harshly by umpires.

Ohanian retweeted a post highlighting how Federer had swore at a chair umpire at the 2009 US Open.

“Genuine question: How did that turn out for him?” Ohanian wrote, appearing to question why Federer hadn’t been given a code violation like Serena.

Image: Twitter
Image: Twitter

However fans were quick to slam Ohanian, pointing out that Federer did in fact receive an audible obscenity warning and a fine for the outburst.

Ohanian’s tweet even found its way to Reddit, the social media platform that he co-founded.

Ohanian actually logged on and hit back at a number of fans for criticising him.

‘Mistakes were made’

Earlier this week Federer weighed in on the saga which has erupted since Serena accused umpire Carlos Ramos of being a thief, after taking a game off her for numerous code violations, including coaching.

Federer was careful not to blame one party for the saga, but did say every umpire had their own ‘style’ which can make it seem like different players are getting treated differently.

“It’s interesting but I think it’s important to look at it (players getting treated differently),” Federer told KVUE.

“Every umpire has their own style, it’s just how it is in any sport.

“In tennis you might have an umpire that gives more coaching violations and another guy goes more to time violation.

“You might get one guy who knows that this guy misbehaves quite often so I’ll give him a warning quicker or I’ll be more lenient with a guy because he’s a nice guy and just can’t control himself. I think it really depends on the situation.”

The Swiss star said the hoped sexism did not play any part in the punishments handed down to Serena, as the greatest female tennis player of all time claimed, and gave some indication as to how he thought the umpire could have handled the situation better.

“I hope it’s not the case (that there is gender bias) but I think what happened, obviously there was mistakes along the way and there should be more discretion sometimes,” Federer said.

“At the same time, they (the umpires) have to do their job, that’s what we want them to do.

“It’s been tricky but a really interesting case to study.”