England striker Kelly Smith claims would have slapped reporter over 'twirl' request

England striker Kelly Smith has claimed that the on-court interviewer who asked Canadian tennis ace Eugenie Bouchard to twirl at the Australian Open, would have had a slap from her.

Smith, who has won 117 caps and plays for Arsenal Ladies, felt that the request was arrogance or stupidity. She claimed that if she were asked, she would probably have slapped the interviewer around the face.

Smith said that the episode, dubbed 'twirl-gate', was an insult to women's sport, the BBC reported.

The striker added that it shows there still is that ignorance when it comes to women's sport and that transfers to kids nowadays, adding that people think it is still OK to say things like that.

Smith, speaking at the launch of the Women's Sport Trust's '#BeAGameChanger Awards', claimed that the more they raise the profile of women's sport through awards such as these, the bigger the chance of knocking that behaviour and ignorance out of sport and society in general.