A Chinese blogger who goes by the alias of “Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07″, has apologised for saying he planned to kill Roger Federer.

Reports from China detailed the threat that was made ahead of this week’s Shanghai Masters:

“On October 6, I plan to assassinate Federer for the purpose of tennis extermination,” read the message, posted under the name “Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07” on baidu.com.

The user also posted a doctored image showing a decapitated Federer on his knees on a tennis court, with a masked executioner dressed in black and holding an axe posing next to him.

Baidu is a web services company that looks a lot like Google, and performs similar tasks.

At the time, the police did what they needed to:

We hope that it was an oral threat only, and the fan won’t take substantive action,” Yang is quoted as saying. “However, we have to take it seriously. We have contacted the local police and we will upgrade the level of security for Roger. Meanwhile, we will also protect other players’ security.

Realising his foolish ways, Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07 offered his apologies to the organisers, and asked that they be passed on to Federer.

He had been arguing with other tennis fans, when he got a little heated:

I’m terribly sorry. I was arguing with Federer fans and then I wrote something stupid … I hope that the organisers can understand me, forgive me, and if possible send my apologies to Federer and his family.

Federer had previously learnt of the threat before the tournament, and had opted to leave his family at home as a precaution. He was however surprised that the threat had mainstream news.

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. But that is the case anyway anywhere I go today with my fame and all that stuff. So then obviously it came out in the press.

That’s when things changed. 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.

Another report has now indicated that Blue Cat Polytheistic Religion Founder 07 has said no action has yet been taken against him:

I have not been arrested. I took the initiative to contact the relevant people to apologise.

[Source: SI]