NEW DELHI: A cartoonist faced backlash on Tuesday over his
cartoon that was published in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper on Monday showing tennis player
Serena Williams.
Mark Knight's cartoon showed Serena as a fat-lipped angry woman yelling during the US Open.
In the cartoon, Knight showed the umpire asking tournament winner
Naomi Osaka "can't you just let her win?".
Harry Potter author JK Rowling took to Twitter and criticised The Sun Herald cartoonist for depicting Serena Williams losing her cool during the tournament.
She called out the cartoonist for "reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes".
"Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop," she wrote on Twitter.
However, the post with the cartoon has since been deleted by the cartoonist.
Several other people also took to social media and called the cartoon "offensive" and "racist".
During the US Open final on Saturday, the 23-time Grand Slam champion smashed her racquet and had called the umpire a "thief" and a "liar".
The 36-year-old was handed a code violation for coaching, a penalty point for racquet abuse and a game penalty for calling umpire Carlos Ramos a "liar and a thief" and insisting "you owe me an apology".
However, defending his cartoon, the Australian cartoonist said that he had drawn an unflattering portrayal of Australian male tennis star Nick Kyrgios "behaving badly".
"Don't bring gender into it when it's all about behaviour," he said.
During the US Open final, Serena was given three code violations by Carlos Ramos -- the first for receiving coaching, the second for racquet abuse and the third for verbal abuse of the umpire.
The second and third violations earned the player a point penalty and then a game penalty, giving Osaka a 5-3 second-set lead that effectively gifted her the title.