{"id":263183,"date":"2025-09-29T06:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263183\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T06:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:53:16","slug":"lorenzo-musetti-under-fire-after-complaining-chinese-fans-are-always-coughing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/263183\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorenzo Musetti under fire after complaining Chinese fans &#8216;are always coughing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian tennis star Lorenzo Musetti is under fire after hurling a derogatory remark toward fans in China during a match in Beijing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Musetti, 23, was set off when he heard coughing in the crowd during his match against France\u2019s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the China Open on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After dropping a point to the Frenchman in the second-set tiebreaker, the No. 9 ranked player in the world erupted at the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37236465\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lorenzo-musetti-italy-celebrates-point-112179683.jpg\" alt=\"Lorenzo Musetti\" class=\"wp-image-37236465\"  \/>Lorenzo Musetti issued a derogatory remark toward Chinese fans after being frustrated by coughing in the crowd on Friday, September 26. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are always coughing, these f\u2014ing Chinese,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cThey are always coughing, for f\u2013k\u2019s sake. They cough every three seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musetti went on to win the match \u2014 but his victory was overshadowed by stern pushback on social media and allegations of racism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Italian took to Instagram on Saturday morning to address the Chinese fans and apologize for his actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to sincerely apologize for what I said in frustration yesterday during my match,\u201d Musetti wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy words were directed only at a few individuals in the crowd who were coughing repeatedly and disturbing the play,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey were never, in any way, meant for the Chinese people. It happened in a moment of stress and tension in the second tiebreak, but still, this is no excuse at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37236466\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lorenzo-musetti-italy-plays-shoot-112180301.jpg\" alt=\"Lorenzo Musetti\" class=\"wp-image-37236466\"  \/>Musetti\u2019s victory over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard was overshadowed by stern pushback on social media and allegations of racism. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Musetti\u2019s outburst marks the second instance this month that a tennis star has had to walk back offensive remarks sent in China\u2019s direction. <\/p>\n<p>American player Taylor Townsend, in China for the Billie Jean Cup, recently made headlines for her comments <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/16\/sports\/taylor-townsend-apologizes-for-chinese-food-comments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">about local delicacies served at a buffet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>She emphasized her shock and confusion while rating the meal \u201ca solid 2 out of 10 so far, because this is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Townsend, 29, went on to express her regrets on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just wanted to come on here and apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart,\u201d Townsend said in a video posted on Instagram. She added that she had \u201cnothing but the most amazing experience\u201d in China and that her comments were \u201cnot representative of that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian tennis star Lorenzo Musetti is under fire after hurling a derogatory remark toward fans in China during&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":263184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,5724,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-263183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-tennis-match","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115286272010813988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}