{"id":150791,"date":"2025-09-17T16:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/150791\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T16:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:54:09","slug":"tennis-star-taylor-townsend-apologizes-for-comments-about-chinese-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/150791\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star Taylor Townsend apologizes for comments about Chinese food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">American tennis star Taylor Townsend has apologized &#8220;from the bottom of my heart&#8221; for making disparaging comments about Chinese food.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I just truly wanted to apologize. There&#8217;s no excuse, there are no words. And for me, I just, I will be better,&#8221; she said on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The 29-year-old, who is ranked world No. 1 in doubles, is in China for the 2025 Billie Jean King Cup Finals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">She recently posted videos of local dishes including bullfrogs and turtles on Wednesday. She joked she would need to &#8220;talk to HR&#8221; about the quality of the food.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A woman in a black tennis uniform in action during a match.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2232429128.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5012722646310432\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Townsend will lineup alongside McCartney Kessler\u00a0for a potential doubles match between the U.S. and Kazakhstan on Thursday. (Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But after facing a backlash online, Townsend took to Instagram again Wednesday to apologize.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I just wanted to come on here and apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart,&#8221; said Townsend, who said she understood how privileged she is as a professional athlete to be able to travel around the world and experience cultural differences.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;(It&#8217;s) one of the things that I love so much about what I do, and I have had nothing but the most amazing experience in time here and the tournament,&#8221; Townsend said. &#8220;Everyone has been so kind and so gracious. And the things that I said were not representative of that at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Last month at the U.S. Open, Townsend got into a dispute with Jelena Ostapenko. She said the Latvian player told her she had &#8220;no education, no class&#8221; after their second-round match, which Townsend won.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Two women tennis players argue after their match.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2232430337.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7664670658682635\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Jelena Ostapenko, right, argues with Townsend following their U.S. Open match. (Clive Brunskill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Ostapenko later apologized on social media, saying English is not her first language and that when she used the word\u00a0&#8220;education&#8221; she meant tennis etiquette.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A reporter had asked Townsend, who is Black, whether she thought there were racial undertones to what Ostapenko said on the court. Townsend later said it was &#8220;great that she went to social media and apologized.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Townsend and the United States are scheduled to play Kazakhstan in Shenzen, China, on Sept. 18. She&#8217;ll line up alongside McCartney Kessler for the potential doubles match, with the winner moving on to the semifinal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American tennis star Taylor Townsend has apologized &#8220;from the bottom of my heart&#8221; for making disparaging comments about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-150791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}