Michael Llodra's racist slur has no place in international tennis

The ATP Tour Indian Wells tournament is supposed to be about the best players in the world coming together to battle it out for the top spot.

And most of the time it is.

We should be talking about Andy Murray’s early exit, about whether Novak Djokovic will prove his world number one ranking or whether Roger Federer will take out his third ATP tour event for the year.

However, all of that has been sadly out-shadowed for a moment due to a racist outburst by Michael Llodra during his match against Ernests Gulbis in the opening round of the tournament in California.

The Frenchman, who ranks 41st in the world, was recorded on Twitter by a Canadian journalist present at the match who spoke openly about the “deplorable behavior by Llodra”.

According to Tom Tebbutt, Llodra “smacked ball out of court, threw racquet, called female Gulbis supporter in crowd a f—— Chinese”.

Racism is simply unacceptable in any aspect of the game, and simply put, we expect better from international players of the game like Michael Llodra.

The slur has no place in any arena, and certainly not in international tennis.

In the words of Martin Luther King:

“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty…”

Llodra was fined $2,500 for the slur.