Tarpischev, President of the Russian Tennis Federation, called the American siblings, Venus and Serena, the "Williams brothers" during a recent appearance on a late-night television Russian chat show.

Navratilova, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, has claimed the remarks are tantamount to "bullying".

"The silence from the ITF has been pretty deafening," she said.

"They are the ones who have actually the possibility of doing something as Tarpischev is head of the Russian Tennis Federation, which falls under the ITF and is also Fed Cup captain which falls under the ITF.

"The WTA has done all they can do.

"They certainly have shown they have Serena's back and Venus' back and he might have thought the comment was funny but it was anything but.

"Certainly this kind of bullying comment cannot be tolerated from anyone, but particularly from a high up official in the tennis world."

Shamil Tarpischev has claimed that his remarks about Venus and Serena Williams were meant as a joke and have been taken out of context ©AFP/Getty Images



But the ITF has insisted that the sanctions handed out to Tarpischev have been sufficient and are calling on all parties to "move forward".

"The ITF was very disappointed when it learned that Shamil Tarpischev, longtime President of the Russian Tennis Federation, made derogatory remarks about the gender of Serena and Venus Williams," ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti told Reuters.

"What Mr Tarpischev said was wholly unacceptable to the ITF and, when we learned of the issue, we encouraged him to apologise immediately.

"Although Mr Tarpischev assured us that his comment was meant as a joke, we made it clear to him that what he said is inappropriate in any context.

"We hope that his acceptance of fault in this matter, which includes the penalty assessed by the WTA Tour, will allow all of us to move forward."

Serena and Venus Williams have won 25 singles Grand Slam titles between them as well as four Olympic gold medals each ©Getty Images





Tarpischev has led the Russian Tennis Federation since 2002 and has been a member of the IOC since 1994.

As revealed exclusively yesterday by insidethegames, the IOC is to contact him to seek an explanation over the row which has seen him fined $25,000 (£15,500/€20,000) by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and suspended for a year.

He is currently part of its Entourage Commission, which deals with matters concerning the relationship between athletes, coaches, managers, sponsors and all other stakeholders that support athletes.

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October 2014: Exclusive: IOC to contact Tarpischev after Williams condemns his comments as "sexist" and "racist"
October 2014: IOC member Shamil Tarpischev fined and banned by WTA Tour for insulting Williams sisters