Justin Gimelstob described Anna Kournikova

A senior official in men's tennis has been forced to issue a grovelling apology after an extraordinary sexist rant about women players. Justin Gimelstob, a director of the Association of Tennis Professionals, described France's Tatiana Golovin and Alize Cornet as 'sexpots'. And he said 19-year-old Czech Nicole Vaidisova, who yesterday won through to the fourth round at Wimbledon, was 'well-developed'.

Gimelstob, 31, who retired from the professional tennis circuit last year, let rip on a Washington-based morning radio show, The Junkies. In an hourlong interview, he saved his real vitriol for the semi-retired Russian Anna Kournikova, announcing: 'She's a bitch'. Asked if he 'hated' the 27-year-old, with whom he trained as a junior, he replied: 'Hate's a very strong word. I just despise her to the maximum level just below hate.' Gimelstob, from New Jersey, became known during his career as the 'most quotable guy on the ATP tour' following comments such as 'I'm only seven matches away from my first Grand Slam' after reaching the U.S. Open first round via a wild card in 1995.

His best-ever world ranking was 63, but he won the 1998 Australian Open and French Open mixed doubles titles with Venus Williams as his partner. Kournikova was in the tennis headlines a few weeks ago when American player Justin Gimelstob went on a nasty radio rant about her and some women on the world tour, calling them “sexpots,” for which he was suspended by World TeamTennis and issued a public apology.

By now, this kind of attention slides right off Kournikova, who doesn’t play on tour anymore, but stays busy with public appearances, charity work, a little WTT and plenty of the fun life in her adopted home in south Florida. “I don’t have to prove anything to anybody or try to change anybody’s opinion,” she said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. People can jump to conclusions just from hearing stuff or reading all this stuff in the press, and sometimes, the press dramatizes it or makes it a little out of proportion, but a true tennis fan knows what I’ve achieved, what kind of results I’ve had on the tennis court.

And I know that, and that’s the important thing, as long as I know, for myself, and that I’m satisfied. That’s all that matters. I’m not out there to try to change anybody’s opinion or judgment or their perception of me.” Kournikova is best known for having won two Australian Open doubles titles, in 1999 and 2002, and nothing else. She’s been named one of the world’s sexiest people by magazines who keep track of that sort of thing, and has been the constant subject of off-the-court rumors concerning her love life, but her tennis career, once so promising, never lived up to the expectations of most observers.