Former world No. 2 tennis player Paula Badosa has apologized after a photo was shared online that showed her pulling her eyes back with chopsticks while playing tournaments in China.
After she lost in the semifinals of the China Open Saturday, the Spanish star’s coach, Pol Toledo, posted the picture, apparently taken in a restaurant.
However, many commenters soon accused her of racism for making a gesture that is used to mock East Asian people. The 26-year-old, currently ranked No. 15, was quick to defend herself.
“We weren’t even imitating Asian people,” she wrote. “I was playing around with my face and wrinkles.” She also said, “I love Asia … and have plenty of Asian friends. They are the kindest.”
The photo was deleted, and Badosa offered an apology ahead of her appearance in the Wuhan Tournament.
“Really sorry, I didn’t know this was offensive [or] towards racism,” she posted Monday on X. “My mistake. I take full responsibility.”
Badosa would later withdraw from the tournament due to a gastrointestinal illness.
The tennis star is only the latest Spanish athlete to garner criticism for making that particular offensive gesture.
Ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, every player on both the Spanish men’s and women’s basketball teams appeared in full-page advertisements in the country’s best-selling newspaper pulling the corners of their eyes with their fingers. The basketball court in the photo was emblazoned with a Chinese-style dragon.
No one—player, publicist or otherwise—seemed to anticipate that the gesture would be found offensive and incite backlash.
That same year, another photo of numerous tennis players striking the same pose was posted on the Spanish Tennis Federation’s official website.
Its caption read, in Spanish, “We are prepared for China.”
When criticism began to pour in, Spanish men’s basketball player and Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol blamed a sponsor for insisting that the players all make that gesture.
“It was just a bad idea to do that. It was never intended to be offensive or racist against anybody,” he said at the time. “If anyone feels offended by it, we totally apologize for it.”
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