Win or lose, tennis players are bullied by bettors. Insulting and threatening messages are part of everyday lives of WTA stars and the latest to point to this type of abuse is Daria Kasatkina, who showed several abusive messages that hit her inbox after she reached the semifinals of the Huafa Technology WTA Elite Trophy.
The sixth-seeded Kasatkina defeated 11th-seeded Magda Linette 6-3 6-4 on Thursday to became the first player through to the Zhuhai semifinals. Although players usually receiving threatening messages when they play poorly, it’s a known fact that even successful performances can trigger gamblers’ abusive behavior.
“I lost my bet because of your stupidity, you play like stupid and poor monkey” was one of disturbing messages Kasatkina received. A more graphic example of online bullying you can see in the following screenshot that Kasatkina shared on X, commenting how the situation is “completely out of control”:
Danka Kovinic, Taylor Townsend, and Natalija Stevanovic have also recently pointed to the horrors of cyberbullying in sports. Beyond mere insults, tennis players are frequently subjected to death threats, delivered with distressing detail and graphic language.
