Martina Navratilova seemingly takes jibe at US Senator Doug Mastriano after he falls victim to fake news ft. Star Wars

Tennis great Martina Navratilova on Tuesday sharpened her trolling knives again as she took a dig at Republican Senator Doug Mastriano for seemingly falling prey to fake news. The 68-year-old, a former World No. 1 and 18-time Grand Slam champion, is known for her dislike of the conservative Republican party headed by US President-elect Donald Trump.

In the latest incident that saw the legend take on a GOP Senator, Navratilova trolled Mastriano over the latter sharing a picture of a TIE fighter (or Twin Ion Engine fighter) from the "Star Wars" series, claiming it to be a Chinese surveillance balloon that had been shot down while flying over the US.

When Lakshya Jain, a user of X, pointed out that the senator was tweeting about a prop, Martina Navratilova responded, writing "lol" (laughing out loud).

While Navratilova reacted to a reshare by an X user, this is what the Senator's initial post included:

"It is inconceivable that the federal government has no answers nor has taken any action to get to the bottom of the unidentified drones," Mastriano wrote, taking a jibe at the current Democrat Party-led US Government in a lengthy post. "The fecklessness of this administration was on display last year when a Chinese surveillance balloon was allowed to fly over the entire continental United States before being shot down."

However, Community Notes, a new feature added to X after Elon Musk's takeover of the erstwhile Twitter that fact checks posts, declared that the "photo is of a prop/replica spaceship from Star Wars."

Nastriano later claimed that he knew the image used Star Wars props and meant it as a meme.

"I posted a statement about the drones and used an obvious Star Wars prop as a meme," Mastriano wrote on X following the uproar.

'The Philadelphia Inquirer', the Senator said, had called him to inquire whether he knew it was a prop.

"Hilarious," Mastriano wrote, before lambasting it as "modern day journalism."

However, many netizens did not buy his claim and urged the Senator to admit his mistake. While one commenter urged the Senator to "do better" another stated that he would have been better served had he gone with the "more reliable excuse" that his account had been hacked.

Notably, the Senator's comments came against the backdrop of mysterious drone sightings across the US, sparking concerns about rival countries entering US airspace.

Martina Navratilova's vocal opposition to Donald Trump's policies

Martina Navratilova staunchly opposes the Republican party's policies - Source: Getty

Former World No. 1 Martina Navratilova has been outspoken with her criticism of Donald Trump and his policies and endorsed Kamala Harris in this year's presidential election. The tennis legend has been particularly critical of Trump over his policy on abortion rights.

"Fear and anger won," she wrote in a post after Trump emerged the victor. "And a country that was born as a racist patriarchy proved beyond any reasonable doubt it still is a racist patriarchy."

The tennis star has also gone the length to term Trump a "wannabe dictator" making a comparison between the President-elect and ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. She has also been critical of Trump's cabinet picks, including his FBI director pick-Kash Patel, who has been accused of supporting conspiracy theories in the past.

Recently, Martina Navratilova also questioned the legitimacy of Trump's victory over Harris in the recently-concluded election.