‘If she was a male player we’d call her a spoiled brat’: Piers Morgan lashes out at Osaka again following her US Open exit (VIDEO)

Piers Morgan has taken a dim view of Naomi Osaka's troubled exit from the US Open. Sharing footage of her breaking rackets on court, the UK broadcaster has questioned if a male player would receive the same treatment.

After being knocked out by 18-year-old world number 73 Leylah Fernandez at Flushing Meadows in the final Grand Slam of the year, the former number one teased that she could retire from the sport altogether.

That led Morgan to take to social media to share footage of the 23-year-old, who he has previously compared to two of his other regular targets, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, taking her anger out on her racket.

Morgan recently questioned whether mental issues "are the go-to excuse for poor performance" after Olympic gymnast Simone Biles suffered at the Olympics – and he has now laid into Osaka again.

"People got very upset when I suggested Naomi Osaka may be a spoiled brat," Morgan said, tweeting at the end of an eventful week in which he has been cleared by UK regulator Ofcom for controversial comments regarding Markle.

"Here she is repeatedly smashing up rackets as she loses in the US Open. Then she cried again and threatened to quit again.

"If a male tennis player behaved like this, we'd call him....a spoiled brat."

There are evidently plenty of people who agree with the motormouth former TV presenter as his views racked up thousands of engagements within hours.

Plenty didn't, though, with one fellow journalist copping criticism from Novak Djokovic fans for responding: "There are hundreds, if not thousands of examples of male tennis players doing this.

"Djokovic loses his temper all the time and smashes his racket. He got kicked out of the US Open for hitting a linesman in the throat with a ball after smashing it in a bad temper."

Other criticisms were far more direct and scathing. 

"Piers Morgan – the petty, petulant, fragile man baby who walked out on a good job, on the [TV program] Great Morning Britain work team and on the integrity of his profession, is the ‘Spoilt Brat’ personified," said a well-known author.

"Piers, if you’ve nothing good to say about Naomi Osaka and women of black heritage, shut your godforsaken mouth."

Another accused Morgan of "seeming to have a problem with women of colour having mental health issues."

"Meghan Markle, Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles have all been called liars and mocked and ridiculed by him in the last few months," suggested one unimpressed reader. "Coincidence? I think not."

Morgan was happy to defend himself. "Not weird, just untrue," he said of the claim that he did not call out Djokovic.

"When Djokovic threw a similar racket-smashing tantrum at the Tokyo Olympics, I called him a spoiled brat."

Replying to a reader who sarcastically suggested they had missed his posts chiding Djokovic, Morgan simply replied: "You did."