The oft-embroiled Fabio Fognini has got his feet in hot water again. While attempting to defend his Bet-at-Home Open title in Hamburg, Fognini uttered an ethnic slur during his second-round loss to Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic.

A video showed Fognini cursing and calling the Serb “Zingaro,” the Italian word for gypsy.

After complaints surfaced on social media, Fognini apologized via Twitter, saying “I did not mean to offend anyone, I REPEAT: I was wrong!”

He continued, tweeting (translated from Italian): “I know Filip very well and anyone who does sport knows that sometimes it goes beyond, saying nonsense (see the football).”

See the original tweets here, and see a video of Fognini’s outburst here.

This also happened during Fognini's 6-4, 6-0 loss to Krajinovic:



The Italian has been at the center of controversy on several occasions this season. At Wimbledon he was fined $27,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct.