Report: Fan apologizes for Federer death threat

ATP Executive Chairman & President Brad Drewett talks to Roger Federer of Switzerland during a reception for the Shanghai Rolex Masters at the Hilton Hotel on October 8, 2012, in Shanghai, China. / Getty Images

Chinese officials took the online death threat made against Roger Federer ahead of the upcoming Shanghai Masters tournament seriously.

Perhaps it was only after security was increased around the Swiss tennis star that the fan who made the threat realized that words matter.

According to an Italian sports media reported covered in Sports Illustrated, the fan has apologized.

SI wrote:

The fan, who posted on the popular Chinese site Baidu.com under the handle "Blue Cat Polytheism Founder 07" says he got caught up in the heat of a message board debate and said something he didn't mean.
"I'm terribly sorry," the poster said. "I was arguing with Federer fans and then I wrote something stupid ... I hope that the organizers can understand me, forgive me, and if possible send my apologies to Federer and his family."

Earlier, Federer admitted he was distracted by the incident.

"Obviously maybe it's a little bit of a distraction, there's no doubt about it. But you have to be aware of what's happening around you," he said, according to Agence France Presse. "But that is the case anyway anywhere I go today with my fame and all that stuff."

Federer also said he was disappointed with the way the story came out in the media, according to SI.

"It became much more public, which I'm a bit disappointed about, that it did come out in the press," Federer said. "It was something just very small on a website, nothing clear and concrete, people just debating. That it makes that big news is a bit surprising to me."

[Happy-Lion]

This story that the tennis fan who made the death threat had apologized is probably fake. Sports Illustrated relied on a dubious story from an Italian tennis site known for its error-filled stories (this TennisWorldItalia site probably rehashed a flimsy and inconsistent one-sentence story in the Chinese media about Blue Cat's apology).

No news media (not even in China) has spoken to this 'Blue Cat' fan, knows who he really is or what happened to him. This "Blue Cat Polytheism Founder 07" no longer exists on the baidu.com website on which he made those original death threats over several days.

Sport's illustrated's source claimed that 'Blue Cat' sent a letter aplogizing to the Shanghai tournament organizers. However, this is unlikely because (a) such contact information is not publically available evenn on the tournamnet website, (b) it is difficult to contact (and get through to) the tournament organizers and (c) it is unlikely his letter would have been read in the middle of the busy Shanghai event which probably received thousands of junk mail.

So what really happened to 'Blue Cat'. It's likely the Chinese authorities found him and arrested him for making serial death threats. It's also possible the Chinese authorities planted the story about Blue Cat's apology to create the appearance of a happy ending. Does anyone seriously believe that after the bruhaha that he caused with his serial death threats and picture of a decapitated Federer, that the Chinese police would just let him go with a warning?