Italian tennis participant Fabio Fognini has apologised for yelling at himself with a homophobic slur throughout a loss within the Olympic tennis match.
Fognini used the offensive Italian phrase repeatedly throughout the three-set loss to Russian participant Daniil Medvedev within the third spherical on Wednesday.
Fognini wrote in an Instagram story early Thursday that the extraordinarily scorching circumstances “affected his head” and that he “used a very silly expression towards myself.”
“Clearly I didn’t wish to offend anybody’s emotions,” Fognini added.
“I really like the LGBT group and I apologize for the nonsense that I let loose.”
The Instagram story was written on a rainbow background.
Medvedev practically fainted throughout the match and Fognini additionally struggled with the warmth.
Fognini repeatedly slammed his racket throughout the loss, together with after the ultimate level, upon which he picked the racket up and deposited it in a court-side trash can.
The risky Fognini was kicked out of the doubles match on the US Open in 2017 for vulgarly insulting the chair umpire throughout his first-round loss in singles. He was then handed a suspended ban of two Grand Slam tournaments. — AP
