Back to the Tennis Newsfeed

Serena Williams Cartoon ‘Not About Race,’ Artist Says. Experts Strongly Disagree.

If you follow tennis or Twitter, at all, you’ve probably seen the cartoon showing Serena Williams stomping on her racket in her United States Open loss on Saturday, with her features exaggerated into a caricature.

It’s a product of Australia — from The Herald Sun, a tabloid in Melbourne owned by Rupert Murdoch. And it has set off an international storm of outrage, with athletes, fans and even J.K. Rowling denouncing the cartoon as sexist and racist.

How did it come to be?

On Tuesday, the artist, Mark Knight, and his boss tried to explain, arguing that their critics missed the point.