THE DARK SIDE OF TENNIS

Over the course of an average tennis week, there may be 40 odd tournaments around the globe, across WTA, ATP, and ITF tours. Competing in those events, could be somewhere in the vicinity of 1500 athletes, at a rough estimate (likely more when factoring in doubles and qualifying).

Of those 1500 athletes, 1460 of them will conclude their week with a loss, while roughly 2-3 per cent will go through the week undefeated. In a previous era, those 1460 players experiencing defeat, would exit the court, consult with their coach and family to assess what went wrong, and strategise how they could improve. Some might even go back to their hotel room and shed a few tears. But eventually, they would dust themselves off, prepare the travel arrangements for the next week, and move on.

While today, the process remains largely unchanged, there’s now an added challenge: navigating online abuse. In years past, players might have had to deal with a handful of snide remarks from the gallery as they trudged back to the locker room. Now they are essentially hand-delivered a never-ending stream of abusive remarks, bullying behaviour, and downright threatening comments, straight to their phone. It’s almost impossible to escape it. Not in the locker room. Not in the hotel. Not in the airport waiting lounge. Not in the sanctity of their own home.

It is unlikely that any player on the professional tour has escaped the venomous attacks of anonymous online trolls who pose as tennis fans. Make no mistake, these are not tennis fans. They are cowards. Criminals. Gambling addicts. Bullies.

Several triggers can appeal to the anonymous, soulless humans who clearly have nothing better to do.

The quickest way to bring the cowards out of hiding, is to simply lose a match.

Players are regularly posting examples of this online. Recently, Frenchwoman and former world No.4 Caroline Garcia posted on ‘X’…

"This are some of the messages I received lately after losing some matches. Just a few of them. There’s hundreds. And now, being 30 years old, although they still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not ok.

It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.

Maybe you can think that it doesn’t hurt us. But it does. We are humans. And sometimes, when we receive these messages, we are already emotionally destroyed after a tough loss. And they can be damaging. Many before me have raised the subject. And still, no progress has been made. Social media platforms don’t prevent it, despite AI being in a very advanced position. Tournaments and the sport keep partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting. The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone.

Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned, as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say these things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online? I know those who write these terrible messages won’t change because of this. But maybe you, next time you see a post from an athlete, singer or any other person, that has failed or lost, you will remember that she or he is also a human being, trying his best in life. Be kind. Give love. Enjoy life."

The messages she was referring to included…

‘I hope your mum dies soon…’

‘A clown belongs in the circus…’

‘You are a piece of @#$%...’

‘You should consider killing yourself…’

It was a powerful statement from one of the more high-profile players, and one that was supported by many of her peers.

Nick Kyrgios replied, "This is disgusting behaviour. Head up Caro."

Lindsay Vonn, Olympic skier replied, "Thank you for speaking out. It’s so wrong, and needs to get better."

Marcus Daniell, New Zealand doubles player, said: "Thank you for speaking up and exposing this. It's the same at every professional level and it's not ok."

Jessica Pegula posted: "Yep. The constant death threats and family threats are normal now. Win or lose."

Ons Jabeur posted, "Thank you Caro for speaking up. It’s becoming frustrating for most of us when we lose any match. Let’s all stick together to fight this tragedy. Full support."

World No.1 Iga Swiatek also joined the chorus of support, writing: "Thank you for this voice."

Yet top-line players aren’t on their own in having to deal with this. In fact, it may even be more prevalent at the lower tiers, where gamblers often look to make quick money on players who aren’t in the public eye.

Another Frenchwoman, and world No.219, Alice Tubello, recently posted about the ordeal she has been through. Despite having one of her best seasons on tour, rising over 500 places in the rankings, it hasn’t stopped the tormenters from attacking her at every chance they get.

After a recent loss, Tubello received over 300 messages of hate and abuse. She has already filed complaints over death threats, including threats to be stabbed. On top of all that, her Facebook account was hacked, with the perpetrators posting things to suggest her father was a pedophile. At what stage is enough, really enough?

Late last year, the WTA trumpeted their new AI monitoring service, intending to protect athletes from this kind of harmful abuse.

According to the press release back in December:

"Threat Matrix’ will monitor players’ public-facing social media for abusive and threatening content on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. As part of a unique service, support will also be provided for players who receive abuse or threats via private direct messaging.

The service will go live on Jan. 1, 2024 and will cover all partner tournaments sanctioned by the organizations involved and any player who competes regularly in an ITF World Tennis Tour, or WTA Tour event, Wimbledon and the US Open"

Tremendous in theory, but is it working? Well, who would know? Since that announcement, there has seemingly been ‘radio silence’ from the WTA. Not another mention of it on their website. Where are the stats proving that it is actually working? It would be encouraging to hear some good news in regards to combatting this kind of anti-social behaviour. But all we seem to read, is more instances from players, proving that it is not working at all. The First Serve has reached out to the WTA on many occasions this year, but has yet to receive any kind of response.

It doesn’t only take a loss on court to bring the trolls out from their caves. Players such as Emma Raducanu receive more hate than most. If she plays, and loses, it’s a barrage of abuse. If she doesn’t play, because she’s looking after her body (you might remember, she’s coming back from multiple surgeries…), she’s the target of more abuse. If she’s seen away from the court, promoting a product, or promoting her own brand, the abuse steps another notch. Are players not allowed to set their own schedule, and run their own lives? Are we trying to drive some of the best talent tennis has, away from the sport?

Anna Kournikova must be thrilled she didn’t have to play in this current era!

Just last week, the tennis world went into meltdown, after Jack Draper hit an illegal shot against Fexix Auger-Aliassime. Draper hit a half-volley, which, after close video examination, came off the frame, and into the ground, before going over the net. The umpire ruled in Jack’s favour, and he was adamant that he didn’t know it was an illegal shot. Felix handled it all remarkably well, but the social media warriors couldn’t quite take his example, and went to town on the British number 1, calling him a cheat, a liar, and everything in between.

Elon Musk recently took over Twitter, changed it to X, and proceeded to turn the platform into what he calls, ‘The Town Square of the World’, where free speech is not muzzled, but encouraged. This is all wonderful in theory, but in the age of town squares, citizens had no choice but to be public while voicing their opinions. There was nowhere to hide. These days anyone can post, attack, or threaten, under a faceless profile, meaning sanctions will never be forthcoming against them.

What’s the solution?

Can we stop anonymous posting on social media, or at the very least, be made to verify yourself for each profile created?

Can we restrict gambling on the lower tiers of tennis, and funnel it to only the main tours? This may at least allow the juniors coming up, time to settle into their career without the need to deal with this toxicity.

How much falls in the hands of tennis officials, as opposed to the social media companies?

I believe the sport owes its players some sort of protection and should be doing everything it can to shield its stars from the dark side of the sport.

Otherwise, we risk the mental, and physical health of young athletes who deserve so much better.

Tennis doesn’t always do a stellar job in promoting the sport around the world as it is. It’s understandable, and necessary that players might want to market themselves on social media, create their own brand, and engage with their own followers. We want to see the personalities of the athletes.

We want to know what happens behind the scenes. We want to hear their thoughts on a match, or a tournament. If we don’t find a way to combat the hate they are having to put up with, we’re going to lose players from social media.

Then what are we left with? A sport that will have absolutely no visible personalities, and no cut-through to the general public. A sport going nowhere if we’re not careful.