Beijing – Lorenzo Musetti has become the newest tennis star who apologizes with Chinese fans.
“I’m really sorry. I respect you deeply, I feel at home here, and I appreciate the warmth and kindness that I have always received from you,” said the 23-year-old Italian in a message that he posted on social media on Saturday.
Musetti was irritated by coughing in the crowd during his Rond-32 victory on Friday against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the China Open in Beijing, where he shouted: “These (expletive) Chinese coughing always.”
That eruption led to a flurry of indignation on social media, where people commented on one of his previous Instagram messages to accuse Musetti of racist, along with insults and blemish against Italian culture.
“I would like to apologize for what I said in frustration during my game yesterday,” Musetti continued in Saturday’s post. “My words were only aimed at a few individuals in the crowd who repeatedly coughed and disrupted the piece. They were in no way meant for the Chinese people. It happened in a moment of stress and tension in the second tiebreak, but this is no excuse at all.”
He added: “I realize that the way I expressed myself was wrong and inappropriate, and it hurt the feelings of many Chinese fans.”
The American tennis star Taylor Townsend apologized on 17 September to make contemporary comments about Chinese food before the United States played Kazakhstan on the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen, China.
Townsend had posted videos from local dishes, including bullfrogs and turtles and joked that she should “talk to HR” about the quality of the food. She went to Instagram again to apologize after she was confronted with a recoil online and said, “Everyone has been so friendly and so friendly.”
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