Nastase racism row casts cloud over Britain’s Fed Cup D-day
Romanian facing probe for Williams baby ‘joke’ Keothavong also subject to inappropriate remark
Draw ceremonies at team tennis events are normally low-key affairs. A bunch of dignitaries give tedious speeches, a name is pulled out of a bowl to decide the order of play, and everyone poses for photos.
But Ilie Nastase (below), the old rogue who once made the front pages by playing under an umbrella at Wimbledon, has a way of adding a chaotic twist to every occasion. At yesterday’s draw for Great Britain’s Fed Cup playoff against Romania, he popped up with a couple of offensive comments to put everyone on edge.
First, Nastase delivered an inexplicable but definitely off-key wisecrack on the subject of Serena Williams’s forthcoming baby. The question was actually addressed to Simona Halep, the Romanian No1 who was sitting next to him, but Nastase interjected, “Let’s see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk?” Then, as the teams came together for the cameras, Nastase put his arm around Anne Keothavong, the British captain (below right), and asked for her room number – an uncomfortable moment given their 37-year age difference, as well as her status as a married mother with a second child on the way. Local hero or not, Nastase is likely to face action from the International Tennis Federation. “The ITF does not tolerate discriminatory and offensive language and behaviour of any kind,” said the ITF in a statement. “We are aware of alleged comments made by Romanian captain Ilie Nastase and have begun an immediate investigation so that we have the full facts of the situation before taking further and appropriate action.” Unscheduled interventions are something of a stock in trade for Nastase, a former world No 1, who was notorious during his career for turning line disputes into all-out warfare. Keothavong has previously spoken about the way he carried on during a Fed Cup match in the early 2000s, “when he came on to the court at one point and started screaming about line judges and umpires”. But even she probably did not expect the fireworks to start so soon.
For Heather Watson, Johanna Konta and the rest of the British team, the focus will have to be on their opponents, and not the saturnine figure at the side of the court.