Teen tennis player who slapped opponent in 'barbaric' incident issues public apology

Michael Kouame has spoken out for the first time since slapping Raphael Nii Ankrah during their handshake at the net upon losing their match at the J5 Accra. It prompted a brawl to break out between both players' camps as the tournament director called for Kouame to be banned from next week's event. The top seed has now apologised.

Kouame was the top seed at the ITF junior tournament as the ITF Junior world No 606 and lost a tight three-set match to home hope Ankrah 6-2 6-7(5) 7-6(5). At the end of the match both players approached the net for the handshake but the Frenchman slapped the junior No 1,708 around the face. Ankrah could be seen backing off as Kouame raised his hands in what appeared to be an apology.

It sparked a brawl between both players' teams by their respective benches on the court as footage showed the top seed running away with his racket in hand. Kouame has now issued an apology after his "barbaric" slap circulated online and received criticism from the tournament director. "Hi everyone, I sincerely regret my actions on Tuesday at the ITF Tournament in Ghana against Raphael Ni Ankrah," the 15-year-old wrote in a social media statement in both French and English.

"I regretfully struck him after an extremely frustrating and intense match. During the course of the match, I was repeatedly verbally abused by a large number of individuals in the crowd, including insults to my mother in particular. However, that does not excuse my behaviour." Kouame went on to apologise to his opponent specifically and was happy to take on any sanctions he received as a result of his behaviour.

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"I would like to publicly apologize to Raphael," he