Nastase apology and then defiance

Tennis: Romanian denies making racist comment Murray back from brink

Andy Murray avoided losing to Albert Ramos-Vinolas for the second successive week with a gritty performance at the Barcelona Open yesterday.

The Spaniard had caused an upset when he defeated the world number one in the third round in MonteCarlo last week and he looked poised for a repeat.

But Ramos-Vinolas missed a chance to serve for the match and it was Murray who came through 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) after 2hr 59min.

In the semi-finals he will face fourth seed Dominic Thiem, who will be looking for a third British scalp of the week after knocking out Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal beat South Korean Hyeon Chung 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.

G Aljaz Bedene upset second seed Ivo Karlovic in the quarter-finals of the Hungarian Open in Budapest for his 15th straight win.

The British number four broke the giant Croatian’s serve early in both sets on his way to a 6-4, 6-3 victory. It continued the 27-yearold’s sparkling run, with Bedene winning back-toback titles on the secondtier Challenger Tour before coming through qualifying in Budapest.

Maria Sharapova needs just one more win to book her place in French Open qualifying after beating Anett Kontaveit to reach the semi-finals of the Porsche Grand Prix yesterday. The 30-year-old is yet to drop a set in Stuttgart following her return from a 15-month doping ban and saw off the spirited challenge of Estonian qualifier Kontaveit 6-3, 6-4.

The ranking points Sharapova has collected mean she is already close to rejoining the top 250 on Monday, and victory in the last four today would guarantee a spot in the top 200. That would be enough to earn her entry into the qualifying tournament at Roland Garros without the need for a wild card. Ilie Nastase has denied that the controversial comments he made about Serena Williams prior to last week’s fiery Fed Cup tie in Constanta were motivated by racism.

Nastase has been strongly rebuked by Williams for his comments about her unborn baby, with the 70-year-old heard making a derogatory remark.

The 70-year-old is awaiting sanction by the International Tennis Federation after a series of incidents in Constanta, which included asking GB captain Anne Keothavong for her hotel room number, and making abusive comments to a journalist.

During the first day of the tie between Romania and Great Britain on Saturday, Nastase then verbally abused chair umpire Jaume Campistol and tie referee Andreas Egli before swearing at Keothavong and British number one Johanna Konta and calling them bitches as he was sent from the court.

Nastase had appeared to offer a grudging apology yesterday when he accepted, via a Facebook post, that his words and actions prior to and during the tie had “rightfully caused controversy”.

But in a later phone interview, Nastase rejected the accusation that his comments about Williams could be construed as racist, and reiterated his belief that the British press were out to get him.

Nastase said: “If she (Serena) thinks like that then it’s racial for her, but what’s racial for other people? Why does everyone else get upset? I don’t understand.

“I don’t mean anything. Because her husband is white and she is like this. I told (the press conference) a combination would be something like that. But it’s nothing to do with racial, please.

“You probably from the press make this. For me it’s not racial. They called me, on the tour, communist. No one gets upset. Now you come with the word racial. The only person who can get upset maybe is Serena, but not you people in England. Whatever.”

Nastase added that he was likely to quit the game completely if he is suspended.

“If I am not allowed to go and sit in that chair, I’m not going to go. I’ve got other things,” he said.

“I’ve a lot of businesses. I just said the same to the (Romanian) federation because the girls, they want me in the chair.

“I was number one in the world – I want to see how many number ones go to watch a girls’ match. I want to see that person. I don’t get money, I don’t get anything.

“How many players would do that? And they want to suspend me.”

Earlier, Nastase had appeared to take a rather different tone on his Facebook page, in which he described the catalogue of incidents in Constanta as “unfortunate”.

He added: ““My life remains dedicated to tennis and its audiences, so please accept my apologies, for whatever they may be worth right now.”

“In the semifinals he will face fourth seed Dominic Thiem”

Ilie Nastase: Could quit the game