Cartoonist Mark Knight published the caricature in News Limited publication, the Herald Sun.
The cartoon satirises the heated exchange between Serena Williams and chair umpire Carlos Ramos during the US Open final.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion is depicted throwing a tantrum by stomping on her racquet in the foreground. In the background, the umpire is pictured in his chair saying to Naomi Osaka: “Can you just let her win?”
But it was the depiction of Williams' facial features and body that have come under the most fire.
Kenyan-born humanities academic Kathomi Gatwiri at Southern Cross University said the oversized lips contributed to the dehumanising portrayal of Williams.
"The grotesque way in which her body was over-exaggerated, her physical attributes, her lips. Her buttocks, her thighs, her arms. It doesn't look human," she said.
"And when you put that in contrast with how Naomi (Osaka) or the coach is depicted in the cartoon, you can see that is a human being. They are presented in a very careful way - not animal-like."
Comparisons have also been drawn to derogatory and racist caricatures during the US era of Jim Crow, between 1877 and the mid-1960s.
Imagery used at the time to support racial segregation depicted African Americans as "innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites", according to the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia.
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