Do a quick search on social media during many tennis matches and it’s not hard to find people saying terrible things about players.
France’s Caroline Garcia let her 170,000-plus X (formerly Twitter) followers see what players have to deal with in a post on Wednesday following her 6-1, 6-4 loss to Renata Zarazua at the US Open.
The No. 28 seed has had a tough Grand Slam campaign, losing in the second round of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon before bowing out early at the US Open.
Garcia, 30, pointed to sports gambling as one of the major concerns.
“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” she wrote. “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 this 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?”
Garcia, the 2022 WTA Finals champion, says she has received hundreds of mean-spirited comments on social media recently.
“… I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” she wrote.
“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 this 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.”
American star Jessica Pegula, who won the National Bank Open in Toronto earlier this month, retweeted Garcia’s post and backed up her comments.
“The constant death threats and family threats are normal now. Win or lose,” Pegula wrote.
