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Former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki recently called out a journalist for misquoting her on Simona Halep's doping ban, prompting fans to question the state of tennis journalism.
A recent Sports Illustrated column by Jon Wertheim claimed that Wozniacki stood up for Halep amid the Romanian's four-year ban from professional tennis. The Dane apparently urged her colleagues to show respect to the former Wimbledon champion until the final verdict is reached.
However, Caroline Wozniacki took to X (formerly Twitter) a few moments later to claim that those were not her words, but rather taken from an Instagram account pretending to be her.
"It’s come to my attention that @jon_wertheim posted, and since deleted, quotes and opinions from me about Martina Hingis and the Halep doping case. To be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR those quotes were NOT from me, but instead were taken from an account on Instagram that pretended to be me, and didn’t have the check mark," she wrote.
"This is very frustrating because it could have been easily avoided by either calling me, or checking the accounts authenticity on Instagram. I understand mistakes can happen, but I just want to be absolutely clear that these comments did NOT come from me. Have a great day!" she added.
Jon Wertheim responded to the former Australian Open champion, claiming that the quotes came from a hacked account or an impersonator and that the story had been corrected accordingly.
"To retierate - The quotes attributed yesterday to @CaroWozniacki came from either a hacked account or an impersonator account… The story has been corrected to reflect this," he wrote.
Tennis fans were outraged by the incident and took to X to vent their fury. One user suggested that Wertheim apologize to Caroline Wozniacki for his actions.
"In all fairness to Caroline, an apology would be best," the user wrote.
Another user questioned the state of tennis journalism, writing:
"State of tennis Journalism, so tragic."
Another account posted:
"Learn to apologise lol."
Here are a few more reactions from tennis fans to journalist Jon Wertheim misquoting Caroline Wozniacki:
A look into Caroline Wozniacki's tennis comeback
Caroline Wozniacki returned to professional tennis this year after retiring from the sport in 2020.
Her first tournament after the long hiatus was the Canadian Open, where she easily defeated Kimberly Birrell in the first round. Wozniacki was, however, eliminated in the second round by reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
She then competed in the Cincinnati Open, where she was supposed to meet Elina Svitolina in the opening round. But Svitolina withdrew at the last minute forcing Wozniacki to face off against Varvara Gracheva, who won the match 6-4, 6-4.
Caroline Wozniacki's next appearance was at the US Open, where she advanced to the fourth round after defeating Tatiana Prozorova, Petra Kvitova, and Jennifer Brady.
The Dane then squared off against home-favorite and eventual winner Coco Gauff, and gave it her all, winning the second set after losing the first. However, that was not enough to keep her in the tournament, as Gauff eventually defeated her, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
