Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa apologized after being accused of racism for pulling her eyes back with chopsticks in a photo posted to Instagram by her coach, Pol Toledo. Toledo posted the images after Badosa lost to American Coco Gauff in the semi-finals of the China Open on Saturday. Badosa, 26, on Tuesday issued the now-deleted post on X saying that she was not aware of the gesture's connotation. “Spanish WTA [World Tennis Association] players sure love being racist to Asian people, I guess…,” one user wrote, referring to a similar controversy from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which the Spanish Tennis Federation published a photo to its website capturing Olympic tennis players doing the same gesture. The photo was captioned in Spanish, “We are prepared for China.”Badosa is ranked 15 in the world by the WTA, according to its website.

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Persons: Paula Badosa, Pol Toledo, Badosa, Coco Gauff, “, Asia Organizations: China, Sky News, Association, Spanish Tennis Federation, Olympic, WTA Locations: Spanish, Toledo, Badosa, China, Beijing