Death threats Shocking reality of the social media abuse suffered by top tennis players
Richel Hogenkamp, the then world No100, was struggling with a narrow defeat by Ana Konjuh at a tournament in ’s-hertogenbosch, in her native Holland, last June. She logged on to Instagram to catch up with her messages.
One read: “I hope everyone in your family will die from brain cancer. I hope someone will kill you with 2 bullets! I lost $1500 [£1,100] because of you f------ b----. U had everything, you f-----machine for UE [unforced errors]. If I ever find you I will break your lrgs [sic] f------ ugly s---. You are the ugliest person I ever saw! F------ ugly fat scum.”
Shocking? Sickening? What is remarkable about Hogenkamp’s story is that it is remarkably unremarkable. Welcome to the reality of the tennis tour, where the rise of in-game betting is now a lightning rod for social media abuse from disgruntled gamblers. Of the 20 players The Daily
Telegraph spoke to about social media abuse, all said that after every defeat, they are subjected to it, almost always including a death threat. The main reason? Busted bets. Gambling in tennis has become a huge business – witness the International Tennis Federation striking a massive £52million deal with Swiss-based data and betting company Sportradar in December 2015. The figure was – give or take – a 500 per cent increase on the company’s previous deal with the ITF.
Under the deal the ITF provides Sportradar with its data for matches at all levels – from Futures events (the lowest rung of the professional circuit) to the Davis Cup. Tennis is now the third most gambled on sport worldwide, behind football and horse racing. In 2017, between £26-£30billion was bet globally on it.
Some players can laugh at the abuse the rise in gambling has sparked; others find it distressing. A few have stopped checking social media. After a defeat at the ATP World Tour Finals in November, US doubles legend Bob Bryan told
The Telegraph: “Abuse? Death threats? It’s every match. If I go check my phone now there will be some crazy gamblers that are upset with me.”
The Croatian Ivan Dodig, a former world No29, said: “Everybody is getting death threats. It’s normal. It’s every tournament. I get thousands of messages like this. I just ignore it.” World No18 Madison Keys is an ambassador for the anti-bullying programme Fearlesslygirl. Last year, she responded on Twitter to some of the horrific racist abuse she suffers online.
The American Donald Young, meanwhile, felt compelled to respond to a tweet in August that said: “You’ll never win a major title cuz you SUCK. ‘Typical n----- with his drama seeking theatrics.”
Other players, including the Australian Sam Groth, have complained to the social media companies when the abuse extends to family members.
One danger is that players start to believe what they are reading, and social media becomes a form of self-flagellation. After defeat at Wimbledon in 2016, Britain’s No2 Heather Watson admitted: “After a loss like this, I’m so angry with myself, I feel like I need to punish myself. So I just went on Twitter. There was plenty [of abuse].”
Death threats are now regarded as increasingly worrying, according to Jamie Murray’s doubles partner Bruno Soares, who sits on the Association of Tennis Professionals’ Player Council. “It’s a serious issue,” he said. “When it started, it was a lot of abuse from fake accounts but we’ve had a lot of abuse recently from normal accounts, and this is pretty scary. John Isner had a death threat in Paris from a guy with a big social media following so I think this is a crime. Obviously, John was pretty shaken up by it. When it comes from regular accounts and you see guys with thousands of followers, you know it’s
someone who’s p----- because they lost money. And you never know, if he’s crazy enough to say something to me on social media, he’s crazy enough to see me in the street and do something.”
The Dutch doubles specialist Jean-julien Rojer said: “It’s not nice when you’ve had a threat from, say, a Croatian fan and then you’re going to Croatia to play the next week.” Or as the American world No44, Ryan Harrison, put it: “No one wants to be looking over their shoulder because they missed a forehand.”
The psychological impact of abuse can be huge, especially if it highlights a player’s flaw. One woman, ranked around the world’s top 100, explained: “Let’s say you double faulted on a huge point in the third set and that was a turning point in the match. They’ll say something like, ‘You shouldn’t even be a pro tennis player if you can’t serve on a big point’. That is precisely what you were already thinking. That can start creating mental hurdles for you.”
Possibly more than any other sport, tennis players are obsessed with a positive atmosphere. They want people with them who can stop them from obsessing over their flaws. Abuse can undo that hard work. So, what can be done? Stop checking your phone, but that exasperates lower-ranked players who need a social media presence to build their brand and secure precious sponsorship. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram advocate using their tools for blocking those who use offensive language.
The focus of the tennis authorities has been on preparing players for how best to handle the abuse, and making sure they know
how to report it. The ATP, which governs the men’s tour, the Women’s Tennis Association and the ITF (the Futures circuit’s governing body) all urge their players to report abuse. The Tennis Integrity Unit works with social media organisations to close down offending accounts, and contacts the police in extreme cases.
The ATP, WTA and ITF also provide compulsory education and welfare programmes on how to deal with this type of abuse. The problem is players feel they cannot report every threat because they are often receiving hundreds at a time.
There are those, including British 19-year-old Jay Clarke, the journeyman Briton Marcus Willis, and 17-year-old Canadian rising star Felix Auger-aliassime who believe social media abuse could be drastically reduced for lowerranked players by banning gambling at Futures events. A betting ban would also go a long way towards tackling corruption since it is at these lower-level events where the vast majority of match-fixing occurs, with players making such paltry sums that they can be tempted to take a bribe.
But the ITF said: “If there is to be a betting market on professional tennis, we believe it is preferable to have a regulated market rather than an unregulated one. Providing authorised data feeds helps ensure there will be a regulated market.”
The issue of gambling at low-level tournaments will be addressed by the imminent report being drawn up by the Independent Review Panel commissioned by tennis’s governing bodies in the wake of the 2016 match-fixing scandal.
‘It’s not nice when you have had a threat from a Croatian fan and you are going to Croatia to play the next week’