The son of a tennis mogul who criticized Serena Williams' age and weight posted a letter quoting 'Spider-Man' to defend his father against Alexis Ohanian

• The son of a tennis mogul who recently called on Serena Williams to retire is now defending his dad.
• Alexandru Tiriac shared a letter with with Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, on Wednesday.
• "With great power comes great responsibility," he said, quoting Spider-Man's Uncle Ben.

The son of a tennis mogul who recently called on Serena Williams to retire has now defended his dad from Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, in a letter in which he quoted the "Spider-Man" franchise.

Ion Tiriac, a French Open doubles champion who is now the director of the Madrid Open, said in January that Williams, 39, should retire because of her "age" and "weight."

Ohanian responded at the time by calling Tiriac a "racist and sexist clown" - a sentiment he reiterated Tuesday after Williams reached the semifinals of the Australian Open by beating Simona Halep.

"Good thing no one listens to that racist sexist Ion Țiriac," Ohanian tweeted after Williams' victory, including a clown emoji before Tiriac's name.

Following Ohanian's latest comments, Tiriac's son Alexandru posted a letter to Twitter addressed to "Mrs. Williams's husband," tagging Ohanian.

"I have read your tweet with a mix of disbelief and disgust," the letter begins.

"The name Tiriac has a 70-year-old tradition in the world of sport and the Gentleman you are referring to has written a few important chapters that have contributed to the book of Tennis along these decades.

"From player, to coach, to manager, to tournament promoter, the well-respected person you are bad wording in these degrading terms has and still is, at the age of 82, one of the strongest advocates of this sport.

"The respect that he has for Mrs. Williams is tremendous as it should be, she is and will be remembered through time among one of the top 20-25 players that have highly contributed to this sport.

"She has a personality that opened doors to many younger generations of athletes in all fields of sports and social walks of life. For all these reasons we are all very grateful to her."

—ion alexandru tiriac (@AlexandruTiriac) February 16, 2021

Alexandru went on to call Ohanian's comments "unnecessary," saying "free speech should not be wrongly replaced with inappropriate slander."

He then used a quote most often attributed to the "Spider-Man" character Uncle Ben.

"In my humble opinion, and to use a well-known quote, 'with great power comes great responsibility,'" he said.

"As Mrs. William's husband, you can no longer only represent your own views when you talk about sports, but also the voice of an Icon," Alexandru continued.

"It would be a real shame to cast an erroneous image on her legacy through emotional baseless tweets.

"I hope that through these few sentences I can bring some wisdom to your future misguided public declarations, and maybe some due respect to a self-made man who is a true lover and lifelong contributor to this sport."

Neither Ohanian nor Williams has responded to the letter.

Williams faces the third-seeded Naomi Osaka in the last four of the Australian Open on Thursday. The winner of that match will play either the Czech Karolina Muchova or the American Jennifer Brady in the final.