Comprehensive Reuters, Fox News and other media reported that on Thursday, local time, while withdrawing from the World Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Hungarian Grand Prix after falling three straight sets, Hungarian native wild card player Amarissa Kiara Tóth responded to the "Zhang Shuai incident" on the same day and publicly apologized to Chinese "Jinhua" Zhang Shuai through a video.
In the early morning of July 19, Beijing time, in the first round of the WTA250 Budapest match, Zhang Shuai suffered an obvious misjudgment and appealed to the referee for invalidity, and the opponent Thoth erased the controversial ball print. After experiencing all kinds of injustices, Zhang Shuai tearfully withdrew from the competition that day.
On the 20th local time, the Instagram, Facebook and other social media platform accounts of the Hungarian Grand Prix released a video of Toth apologizing to Zhang Shuai. She said: "I never expected that my first WTA victory of my career would cause such a storm, and I am very sorry for what happened. ”
"I respect Zhang Shuai personally and her identity as an athlete." "I never meant to disrespect, annoy or hurt anyone, especially Zhang Shuai," Toth said. ”
Toth also apologized for his actions of cheering victory after Zhang Shuai announced his retirement. "I did realise that I shouldn't have celebrated in that way after that day and I'm sorry. I was so influenced by my emotions and the intensity of the game that I only focused on the game, and I didn't really want to win like that. ”
Toth said she hopes to have the opportunity to communicate with Zhang Shuai in the future, "I want to sit down with her and tell her that I am sad that this game ended this way." ”
Hungarian Grand Prix Instagram
Toth reportedly withdrew from Budapest after losing to Ukraine's Kateryna Baindl in the day's match. After the match, the Ukrainian player specifically mentioned Zhang Shuai in an interview with the media to express his condolences to her.
"I hope Zhang Shuai feels better these two days, and we want to see her back in the ring soon." Because she's an incredible player, very polite and a great person, there's a lot to learn from her. Trinna also stressed that "no matter what happens, we should respect each other." ”
At the same time, she also spoke out for Zhang Shuai's unfair penalty in the game, "Today, (my referee in this game) they are fair. I hope they will always be fair. ”
Ukraine's Katerina Bandel
According to Reuters, after this match with Zhang Shuai, the "little-known" Hungarian player Tóth became a well-known "big red" in the entire tennis world - except that this "red" is "black and red".
On July 19, Beijing time, in the first round of the WTA250 Budapest match, China's Zhang Shuai suffered an obvious misjudgment and appealed to the referee for invalidity.
After the disputed score ended and the two sides each scored another point, Thoth went straight to the ball print of the previous disputed point, ignoring Zhang Shuai's reminder to shout "wait a minute, keep the ball print" on the opposite side, smiling, provocative, and stepping on the ball print.
Zhang Shuai immediately complained to the referee "If it is really out of bounds, why did she wipe the ball print", and Toth shouted "because you are making trouble", and the spectators cheered Zhang Shuai on the sidelines.
In the end, the angry Zhang Shuai withdrew in tears, but still maintained his grace and politely shook hands with the referee and opponent.
Toth, on the other hand, shook hands and immediately cheered to celebrate his first WTA victory as a non-seeded player.
According to Fox News, after the incident, Toth initially refused to apologize and insisted that he was not wrong. In an interview with Radio Kossuth, Hungary's state broadcaster, she allegedly said that "Zhang Shuai was asking for trouble."
"I don't understand why she (Zhang Shuai) is making a fuss, she wants to overturn the referee's ruling, I don't understand why she doesn't accept this result." She replied on a radio show.
At the same time, international public opinion almost completely supported Zhang Shuai. After the game, many tennis stars spoke out to condemn Toth's unsportsmanlike behavior and supported Zhang Shuai, expressing dissatisfaction with the obviously unfair decision. Mainstream foreign media such as Britain, the United States and Australia have also used "disgusting" in the title to describe Toth's actions such as erasing the controversial ball print.
Sports news portal "sportsmanor.com" commented that Toth's disgusting, unsportsmanlike stench made WTA players unite on Zhang Shuai's side for the first time in history, unanimously condemning the Hungarian player, and some people called on the WTA to punish Tott.
On July 20, the WTA issued a statement on the incident, saying that the WTA firmly has "zero tolerance" for any form of racial prejudice and discrimination under any circumstances.
"The WTA is reviewing and responding to the tragic events that occurred earlier in the Budapest tournament and the related remarks that followed," the statement said. ”
According to CBS and other US media reports, this statement is not only aimed at the controversial match between Zhang Shuai and Toth, but also related to a message posted on social media by the event organizer "Hungarian Grand Prix" suspected of "slandering China".
The post-match Hungarian Grand Prix's Facebook posted a comment defending the referee's ruling and Toth's victory, claiming that "Chinese is manipulating the world with a manipulative video," the report said.
The move was met with widespread criticism of "racism," and eventually the organizers deleted (or withheld) the message. This year's Australian Open semifinalist, Polish tennis player Magda Magda Linette couldn't hide her anger on Twitter: "This is the worst event response I've ever seen. ”
The Tennis Channel also slammed the story, saying, "If what happened to Zhang Shuai on Tuesday wasn't bad enough, the Hungarian organizer's remarks on Facebook added fuel to the fire." ”
Polish tennis player Magda Linet Twitter
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