Today, barely minutes after Jo Wilfried Tsonga's win over Nadal in the final Round Robin match of Group B in the ATP World Tour Finals, the following words were posted on Tsonga's official twitter, @tsonga7, via his official Facebook page (both are connected, so that FB posts are automatically posted on twitter):
Tout çà pour montrer que les Espagnols sont pas dopés , merci Rafa t'es un vrai champion ;-)Translated to English (helped by Google Translate), this means:
All this to show that Spaniards are not doped, thank you Rafa, you're a true champion ;-)The (in my opinion) inappropriate tweet was deleted less than a minute after being posted.
Tsonga himself doesn't tweet at all from his account, and both his Twitter and Facebook accounts are run by his PR team, which mainly posts results and photos from official tour events. Sometimes, however, the photos posted on the page have a more personal touch to them (Example A, example B, note the ";-)"). Until today, I personally thought that occasionally Tsonga himself uses his FB page, but I'll be the first to admit that it's not more than a speculation.
In any case, somebody obviously posted this comment to the wrong account. Whether it was written by the player himself (for a possible personal account) or by a member of the PR team (for a personal account of his own) - we cannot know.
What I do know, however, is that such a comment is completely out of place. An apology, or at least an explanation, is expected.
Why do you think it's inappropriate, Ana?
ReplyDeleteI took it to be a comment of support. Rafa was obviously exhausted, which he wouldn't be if he was doping.
I didn't think it was wrong...Did I miss something?
Support? No, it's the other way around. It's basically saying "You'd have to be doping in order to win against me, Rafa, so thanks for not doing that ;)".
ReplyDeleteAt least that's how I understood it (and a lot of other people I saw commenting on twitter, too).
Well, it would be very silly for Jo to say that "nobody without doping can beat him" or something like that. Because he would then be open himself to the charge of doping. He's too intelligent for that.
ReplyDeleteI prefer my interpretation. He was using this match as proof that Rafa is not doping, because if he had been doping he would have had much more energy. It was even a gentlemanly thing, acknowledging that his opponent was not 100%. In a light-hearted way. I've always loved Tsonga's sense of humour. He said something flippant. When he realised it could be misinterpreted, he took it down.
Yes...I'll give Jo the benefit of the doubt...
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ReplyDeleteThink I'm beginning to be persuaded by Yolita's interpretation. Sits better with the "Jo hasn't a bad bone in his body" thesis too...
ReplyDeleteyou're completely wrong anna. Yolita, agreed.
ReplyDelete