Michael Llodra Apologizes for Racist Tirade

French tennis player Michael Llodra has been in hot water all week for a racist rant at a fan over the weekend. His attempts to rectify the situation have fallen flat so far, and I fear his Rush-ed apology may only do more damage. Here's hoping something was lost in translation:

“I’d like to explain myself, regarding the controversy surrounding me and to reaffirm, above all, that I am of course not racist. I have already affirmed and justified that numerous times in the past! Everyone who knows me personally knows this very well.

Sometimes, on a court, when things aren’t going exactly the way I envisioned them, my annoyance leads to my using some very stupid expletives. In this case, the woman in question was quite far from the court, but a small group in the first row decided to make hay with it and report my words – distorting them, on top of that.

I realize that those words upset some people and to them, I’d like to apologize immediately. A high-level athlete who is a role model cannot say everything that goes through his head, even less when it’s vulgar language.

In my defence, the organizers had just scheduled my doubles right after my singles. This scheduling made my success nearly impossible. Indian Wells being an important goal, my tremendous frustration made me lose control of my language.

I would truly like to apologize for having wounded the Chinese community!”