Roger Federer receives apology from fan who sent death threat

The tennis fan whose online death threat to Roger Federer made international news last week has apologized for the "stupid" message board comment.

The Baidu.com user Blue Cat Polytheism Founder 07 wrote:

"I'm terribly sorry. 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. "

Late last month the user wrote that he planned "to assassinate Federer for the purpose of tennis extermination" on Oct. 6.

Federer said he was made aware of the incident before it went public. The decision not to bring his wife and twin daughters to Shanghai had nothing to do with the threat, he said.

The world No. 1 said he was pleased with the response by Shanghai officials, but was confused when the report of the threat went public.

"That's when things changed," he told reporters. "It became much more public, which I'm a bit disappointed about, that it did come out in the press."

"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."

Us too. As we wrote last week, online death threats are an unfortunate part of modern-day life. They should be dealt with appropriately, but don't need to be made public.