Bianca Andreescu gives Nike a dressing down at US Open before issuing apology
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Bianca Andreescu of the United States watches her serve during the third round the Women’s Doubles tennis at the US Open on Court Suzanne Lenglen, during the US Open Tennis Finals at the United States Open on August 2, 2014 in New York City.
The US Open’s first-ever female champion on Friday took a veiled swipe at Nike, accusing the sportswear company of “lazy, short-sighted” business decisions that left a void in women’s tennis.
Bianca Andreescu told the BBC: “Nike didn’t do its job to help women’s sport grow and grow.”
Andreescu’s anger took a more personal form when she accused top sponsors of sexism, sexism which has become a growing point of contention within the women’s game. She said that she had received an “email from my brother” after she won the title which claimed that she should have won the tournament and that she should be making more money.
The BBC said in a statement: “Andreescu’s comments are likely to cause further tension with the corporate backers of women’s sport.”
The US Open has received a number of verbal attacks on its corporate sponsors in the past year, with Adidas accused of being sexist. “We just want to play the sport, the game, in a way that everybody can enjoy,” Andreescu said. “Nike has never done what I asked them to do. They have never done more than they said they were going to do.”
Nike did not comment on her comments.
Andreescu was asked by the BBC if she felt it was a “chastisement” to win the US Open. She responded: “The biggest chastisement was not getting a trophy. The biggest chastisement was for Nike not to let me wear my own clothes. I could not feel comfortable from them not letting me wear my own clothes. That’s the biggest chastisement they could have done.”
She told the BBC she felt she was