Martina Navratilova has always been vocal on social media. She is among the few former players who reply to insensitive comments to stop the hate-spreading. The American great has also defended players on social media in the past. Recently, she stood by Venus Williams when a fan blatantly disrespected her on Twitter.

Williams was playing her first round match against Camila Giorgi in Birmingham. During the match, she had slipped and conceded an important point to the Italian. Giorgi screamed jubilantly to celebrate the point which received a lot of flak from fans. However, when the majority sided with Williams, a few people tried to defend Giorgi’s antics to portray Williams as evil.

Navratilova comes to Venus Williams’ defence

The clip of Venus Williams falling was doing rounds on Twitter. Ex-coach of Serena Williams, Rennae Stubbs, posted the clip which received a large number of responses. One of the junk replies managed to rattle Navratilova as the person accused Williams of being dramatic. He went on to defend Giorgi and said that the game has been better since Serena Williams’ retirement. Annoyed by his words, Navratilova snapped and said, “Racist much, a**wipe?”

Hating the victim and bringing her sister into this was something very ridiculous from the user. Navratilova rightfully called him out for his unnecessary reply. This was not the first instance of Navratilova speaking against racism faced by WTA players. She had come to Sloane Stephens’ defence recently during this year’s Roland Garros.

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Navratilova supports Stephens amidst online hate and racism

Roland Garros recently launched a technology that could block certain comments passed on by the fans. However, Sloane Stephens pointed out the technical flaws where the followers could just censor the words or tamper with the spelling in order to attack the players.

READ MORE: ‘WTAF?!’ – Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams’ Ex-Coach Stumped After Appalling Reaction From Venus Williams’ Opponent Seconds After Her Fall on Grass in Birmingham

When Stephens exposed the technology, Navratilova was the first renowned figure to come to her defence. She said,” This is just disgusting- these social platforms must do better!” after hearing about the major flaw.

Racism is still deep-rooted among several viewers of the sport and to this date considerably prevalent in a sport like tennis. However, big names like Martina Navratilova taking a stand can ensure better times ahead with significantly lesser cases of racism.

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