Tennis star called racist after comments about India following three-week stay

Professional tennis player Dejana Radanovic was accused of being racist after making comments about India following three ITF tournaments in the country. 

Radanovic, the world No. 245 in women’s tennis, slammed the “food, traffic and hygiene” of the country on social media. 

“Adios India. See you never ever ever ever ever EVER again,” she wrote in a series of Instagram Stories from an airport following three weeks in the country. 

Another post in Munich, Germany read, “Hello civilization. Only those who have experienced something like India for 3 weeks can understand the feeling.”

Radanovic, who is from Serbia, addressed the comments that she was racist by saying she was simply commenting about the country itself, not its people. 

“I didn’t like India – the country,” she wrote on another Instagram Story. “I didn’t like the food, traffic, hygiene (worms in the food, yellow pillows and dirty bed linen in the hotel, not knowing how to use roundabout etc.) 

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“If you come to my country, Serbia, and you don’t like all those same things, that means you are a racist??? What the hell that has to do with racism?! I have friends all nationalities and colors so don’t go there cause it’s an absolute NONSENSE!”

Radanovic continued with her Stories, saying she enjoyed the people of India. 

“95% of the people who go to India from anywhere else in the world cannot adopt [sic] to that kind of life! Of course it’s different when you are born there and used to it! How does not liking mentioned things mean I didn’t like the people? Quite opposite, I liked the people there a lot.”

Radanovic gave an example of a man who “drove us on tuk-tuk- to courts every day,” someone that she had dinner with and “had a nice time.”

Others on social media, though, took Radanovic’s words in a different light. 

“Coming from a white person this reeks of racism,” one X user posted. “Nobody forced you to drink tap water. Drink mineral one or from an aquaguard, pretty cheap. Wash the fruits/vegetables. Nobody is asking you to lick them raw from roadside. You lack the brains, the country is fine.”

Radanovic participated in three W50 events in Bengaluru, Pune and Indore.