The Australian cartoonist who drew an unflattering image of Serena Williams throwing a tantrum at the US Open final ended up suspending his Twitter account due to threats made against his family by enraged users, according to news.com.au.
Knight’s cartoon depicts Williams as a spoiled child who spits out her pacifier and stomps on her racket while in the background the chair umpire is depicted as asking her opponent, "Can you just let her win?"
Australia’s finest cartoonist Mark Knight has the strongest support of his colleagues for his depiction of Serena Williams’ petulance. It’s about bad behaviour, certainly not race. The PC brigade are way off the mark…again. pic.twitter.com/CeHaoRG6gf
— Peter Blunden (@PeterBlunden_) 11 сентября 2018 г.
The cartoon stirred heated arguments among social media users, some of whom branded Knight as racist.
READ MORE: Cartoonist Who Depicted Serena Williams’ Rampage on Court Triggers Twitter Storm
"I drew this cartoon Sunday night after seeing the US Open final, and seeing the world’s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting," the Herald Sun’s cartoonist said. "It’s been picked up by social media in the US and my phone has just melted down. The world has just gone crazy."
Knight also insisted that the cartoon was all about Williams’ bad behavior and not her race as his detractors claim.
"I tried to reply to these people but they just don’t listen. On any given day you are a hero and on any given day you are a pariah. And you just have to live with it," he remarked.
