ESPN ran a photo of the Japanese Davis Cup team with a story about the Chinese team

Mixing up national anthems or flags is not great, and neither is mixing up who’s in a photo. On Tuesday, ESPN managed to combine country misidentification with a photo mixup, rolling out an Associated Press story on China’s Davis Cup (international tennis) team forfeiting a match due to “increased restrictions in response to the current coronavirus outbreak,” but accompanying it with a photo of the Japanese Davis Cup team (who were wearing gear with Japanese flags on it).

The story on ESPN.com doesn’t have a photo that appears when you click the page, but it has a photo of the Japanese team associated with it if you expand the link elsewhere, or if you see it on the app:

Is anyone gonna tell @espn that this is a picture of the Japanese @DavisCup team? Maybe @BenRothenberg will say something… #Cmonman pic.twitter.com/MzrxV4x2Su

— Jumbo Clip (@Jumbo_Clip) February 18, 2020

Here’s what that looks like in a preview:

https://twitter.com/newc88/status/1229792532067966976

Yeah, that’s not a great mistake to make. And it’s the second time in five months ESPN’s made a significant error with a photo or graphic about China.

[@Jumbo_Clip on Twitter]