Presenter Adil Ray defends remarks about US Open champion Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu made history on
Saturday after becoming the youngest Grand Slam champion since Maria Sharapova’s
win in 2004. She defeated Leylah Fernandez of Canada to clinch the US Open women’s singles title.

The 18-year-old was
born in Toronto, Canada, and came to London with her family when she was two
years old, settling in Kent. Her father, Ian, is from Romania, while her
mother, Renee, is from China.

Also Read: Emma Raducanu, at 18, wins first US Open women’s singles title

Adil Ray, a
presenter on Good Morning Britain sparked outrage on social media earlier
today after making a remark about her Romanian ancestry.

Adil tweeted that if
you are in the Wimbledon final, you are considered “British,” but if
you work in the service industry, you are labelled “Romanian.”

Adil tweeted:
“If you play in a tennis final you’re British if you’re a
builder/delivery man/waitress etc you’re Romanian.”

The tweet garnered
mixed reactions from the users.

Also Read: Emma Raducanu: British teen who has taken tennis fraternity by storm

One side of the
users appreciated him for his thoughts.“Excellent point Adil! In the current
political climate her parents and Emma would possibly not be let into UK.” a person
commented.

Others were unamused by
the tweet and blamed him for trying to start a “row”.

“Adil I’m
supportive of a lot of what you do, but that’s a really poorly thought out
nonsense tweet purely designed to invite a negative reaction. Why?” a user said.

“That’s a
sweeping generalisation, we don’t all think like that- surely fighting prejudice
is about not making generalisations?” another person asked.

Adil, on the other hand, has
responded to his remarks, explaining that his observation does not apply to
everyone.

Also Read: Emma Raducanu sets up all-teenager US Open final vs Leylah Fernandez

He also tweeted later: “How
many news reports have referred to #EmmaRaducanu as an immigrant/child of
immigrants, or Romanian/Chinese.

“It’s important we do. Incredibly powerful. Let’s not just
leave those labels for when we are doing “wrong” “lagging behind” or
“disadvantaged”. It is us. Our British us.”