The president of the Russia Tennis Federation is suspended after calling Venus and Serena Willams 'brothers.'

The President of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpischev has been fined $25,000 and suspended for one year by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for calling Venus and Serena Williams 'the Williams Brothers.'

He made the comment during a Russian late-night talk show and also added that they were frightening to look at.

Tarpischev, also an International Olympic Committee member, has since offered an apology to the sisters. The WTA chief executive, Stacy Allaster, said that the comments were 'insulting, demeaning and have absolutely no place in our sport.'

Tarpischev claimed that his derogatory comment was an innocent joke. 'I understand now that my remarks were wrong and could be construed as discriminatory by the public.' he said

The ban will prevent him from participating in all WTA events for the next year and he might also lose his post as Kremlin Cup chairman which he has held for about 20 years.

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The International Tennis Federation was very disappointed when it learnt that the longtime president of the Russian Tennis Federation, made derogatory remarks about the gender of Serena and Venus Williams.

'What Mr Tarpischev said was wholly unacceptable to the ITF and, when we learnt 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 Williams labelled the comments 'very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist. I thought they were in a way bullying.' She added on Sunday.