Serena Williams Rebuts Claims That Wozniacki's Impression of Her Was Racist

December 23rd, 2012 9:35 AM

A few weeks ago, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki during an exhibition match did a comical impersonation of Serena Williams that some in the media immediately called racist.

On Wednesday, Williams told USA Today that she considers Wozniacki a friend and didn't agree with those that were offended by the gag:

"I know Caro and I would call her my friend and I don't think she (meant) anything racist by it...(Roddick) and (Djokovic) do it all the time and Caro does (it) and now it's racist.??"

For those unfamiliar with the sport, Williams was referring to Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic who have similarly mimicked her.

Tennis is and has been a sport where players often spoof each other in the middle of a match.

Yet when this happened two weeks ago, Yahoo! Sports published a story about it with the headline "Funny or Racist?"

The ladies of The View actually discussed the matter with co-host Sherri Shepherd saying, "I know they're friends, but still it does something inside of me because we've been made fun of for so long for different parts of our body. And to see Serena Williams reduced to this, I don't like it."

I wonder if Shepherd or any of Wozniacki's other detractors will change their minds now that Williams has spoken.


For the record, here's what some found racist:

And here's Roddick's impersonation of Williams that nobody had a problem with: