In May, after a series of health problems, she was ranked 140th. She is now number 14 in the world. However, the remarkable return of the Spaniard Paula Badosa to the elite tennis society has been clouded in recent weeks by a case that got out of control.
She dominated the tournament in Washington, played the semifinals in Cincinnati, the quarterfinals at the US Open, and she also did well on the Asian tour. At the big event WTA 1000 in Beijing, she reached the top four and was rewarded with a gala dinner in one of the restaurants of the Chinese capital.
It was there, however, that a problem arose that made the life of the twenty-six-year-old tennis player significantly more miserable in the following weeks.
The photos from the restaurant, which Badosa’s coach Pol Toledo published on Instagram, caused an uproar especially on social networks. The tennis player used her chopsticks to widen the corners of her eyes as if imitating the look of Asians.
An overwhelming wave of criticism fell on the Spaniard, and the subsequent apology didn’t help much either.
“I’m really sorry, I had no idea that it could be considered racism. My mistake, I take full responsibility for it. I’ll learn from it, I hope you’ll understand,” the tennis player wrote.
On another platform, she claimed that she wasn’t imitating Asians at all, that she was just “playing with her face and wrinkles”.
“I had no idea that anyone could interpret it like that. I love Asia, I have a lot of friends here and they are my favorite people. The kindest,” she said.
Some forgave her, others didn’t, especially when she later deleted the apology from her networks. In any case, the former world number two withdrew from the next tournament in Wuhan, and the case was beginning to be forgotten. Before the player herself reminded her rather unhappily last week.
After she announced the early end of the season, her coach shared a post celebrating their successes together this year. “Thanks for not sharing a picture that would get me in trouble this time,” joked Badosa, and a second round of negative comments followed.
The Spaniard lost her temper and started arguing with her critics on the networks. “Do you know me to say such things about me? Who do you think you are? I think it says something more about you. If you knew even one percent of me, you’d know that I’m a kind person who tries to find humor in everything,” she wrote, for example.
In another reply, she complained about bullying and hate.
“It’s really tiring to see so much hate and criticism on social media. People like you bring so much negativity to the world. All this bullying is crazy and absurd. Stop it. Jesus,” Badosa fumed, saying that Chinese fans love her and they understand that people can make mistakes.
“It really hurts me when people talk about me like that. Because I’m not like that. It’s really crazy and unacceptable. I never paid attention to it, but what’s too much is too much,” added the Spaniard.
She later deleted all traces of her long and heated debate with her critics from the social network Reddit and locked her profile.
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