Gimelstob retired from the men’s tour last year and is on the board of the ATP, which runs men’s tennis. He made sexual remarks about Kournikova and other female players on a Washington radio program “The Junkies” last week, before heading to Wimbledon.
The comments were widely published in Britain on Friday, after Gimelstob was suspended one match without pay by WTT for a violation of the player conduct code.
Gimelstob called Kournikova the “b-word” and made sexually-charged remarks about her and his brother. Gimelstob apologized on the WTT Web site Wednesday, the day of his suspension.
Serena Williams, who is on the Washington Kastles team with Gimelstob, said the comments were “totally uncalled for.”
“Being pro women’s rights, I just think we’ve come farther than to be referred to ... you know, I don’t cuss,” she said Friday, during her post-match press conference. “Anna is a great girl. For anyone to say that about her is kind of ... what can I say? It’s not professional.”
Gimelstob also made a suggestive comment about Czech player Nicole Vaidisova during the program. Vaidisova downplayed the remarks.
“I know Justin. He’s a very nice guy. I heard he apologized for it,” Vaidisova said. “I think it’s just you say something and you don’t really mean it. It happens.”
In his apology, Gimelstob said there was “no excuse” for his comments.
“I am extremely disappointed in myself,” Gimelstob said in the statement. “I take full responsibility for all the words that came out of my mouth ... Anna Kournikova, World Team Tennis and many others deserve my deepest apologies.
“I recognize that my access to communicate to the public should be used in a positive way, and this was clearly not the case last week.”
Billie Jean King, the co-founder of WTT, met with Gimelstob and was “confident both he and WTT will move beyond this unfortunate incident,” she said in a statement on the WTT Web site.
Gimelstob, a commentator at Wimbledon for Tennis Channel, writes a regular column for Sports Illustrated’s Web site.
Kournikova made the Wimbledon semifinals in her debut in 1997. She never won a singles title, but won two Australian Open doubles titles.
Kournikova had little to say about Gimelstob’s remarks.
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