A press conference Saturday at Roland Garros left Dominic Thiem, saying that Serena Williams had "a bad personality".

Thiem was halfway to his post-game press conference in the main interview room when he learned that he had to move to a smaller room to make room for him. to Serena Williams, who had just lost to Sofia Kenin, 20 years old.

According to the French newspaper L'Equipe, Williams reportedly saw Thiem and ordered the WTA officials to "put me in another room (smaller), smaller, but now". Instead, they decided to move Thiem and give Williams a larger interview space.

Thiem was visibly agitated when he arrived in another interview space a few moments later.

"I do not really understand, seriously," said Thiem. "I mean, what is this mess? It's a joke, really."

Asked about the series of events organized Sunday by Eurosport, Thiem said: "This is only the principle" of the question.

"Even if a junior player is present, every player has to wait.It's a no-brainer," Thiem told the newspaper. "It also shows a bad personality, in my opinion, I'm 100% sure that (Roger) Federer or (Rafael) Nadal would never do such a thing."

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Williams did not comment publicly on this, although The team confided that she was surprised to say "it's really rude" as the press conference change occurred.

The BBC reported that tournament director Guy Forget apologized later to Thiem.

The 25-year-old Austrian, No. 4 of the latest ATP standings, defeated Gael Monfils on Monday in straight sets to qualify for the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @ Tom_Schad.

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