ANGRY GAMBLERS ABUSE BRITISH STARS ONLINE
Tennis players are being routinely abused via social media by gamblers angry that they have lost them money.
British no 1 Jo Konta and Great Britain Davis Cup player Dom inglot revealed yesterday they have been trolled by furious punters that have lost after backing them to win.
Konta, into the third round of the Australian Open, told yesterday of having to ignore the worst excesses of what comes through on Twitter and Facebook. ‘You get these trolls on social media and it’s your responsibility to report them, so i’m aware of the code and how to handle these situations.’
Doubles specialist inglot, part of last year’s victorious Davis Cup squad and into the second round in Melbourne, told of one experience while playing at Wimbledon.
‘i was playing with Chris eaton (fellow GB player) and in the first round we beat top seeds Daniel nestor and nenad Zimonjic,’ inglot (right) told Sportsmail.
‘in the next round we lost to Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau, and this guy messages me saying, “i can’t believe you lost me money you mother******”. i just thought, “Wow”, especially as they were also among the world’s best teams.’
in 2013, Rebecca Marino, a former top 40 player from Canada, retired and said being bullied on social media was a factor in her decision. ‘These matters are taken very seriously. We have procedures in place whereby any threats or abuse to a player should be reported to either the Tennis integrity Unit or the ATP’s director of security, who follow up accordingly,’ said an ATP Tour spokesman.
Last year ATP security contacted law enforcement agencies, who tracked down an abuser and visited him at home. The player was given the option of having the offender arrested but asked it be dealt with by an official warning. The abuser was said to have apologised profusely and explained they were drunk and had lost money on the player concerned.
Former GB player naomi Cavaday, who recently retired, gave an interesting take on the potential dangers of Facebook. Writing on her personal blog yesterday, she told of how a potential fixer tried to hijack her account and reported it to the TiU. ‘i have had one incident when a stranger impersonated me on Facebook, became friends with a lot of other players and was harassing them for information on other players’ fitness and form,’ she wrote. ‘it was clearly to do with betting but fortunately one of the first
players they contacted knew it wasn’t me (mainly because the english wasn’t good enough), and told me it was going on.’
Konta is confident that fixing activity is more common in the men’s game than the women’s.
‘i have never heard of it happening in the women’s game,’ she said. ‘Both men and women look to protect the integrity of our sport and make sure we educate the generation coming up and make sure it becomes eliminated.’
Why there should be a gender bias with this problem is an interesting question. One factor may be that on tour women players tend to be more tightly cocooned and accompanied, often by family members, than their male counterparts.