Serena Williams swats aside Donald Trump’s awkward Maria Sharapova theory

Serena Williams is probably used to fielding strange and sometimes awkward questions at press conferences, but Saturday brought one that was awkward and uncomfortable even by her standards.

Williams was confronted by a question about whether she was intimidated by longtime rival Maria Sharapova. In a nutshell, it’s not the worst question, but the reasoning behind it was: using comments Donald Trump made in 2004 about Sharapova’s “alluring” shoulders and “super model good looks” intimidating Williams.

Williams swatted it away quickly.

I have never physically cringed as hard as when I read this in Serena’s transcript. Wow. pic.twitter.com/60wnSWG6En

— Jeff Donaldson (@jddtennis) June 2, 2018

First of all, this was a very gross and awkward exchange. Second, what makes anyone think Williams has ever been intimidated by Sharapova? The pair have faced off 21 times, and Williams has won 19 of them. There’s clearly no intimidation there, and Sharapova thinks she knows why. Regardless, this was a really silly question.