Elina Svitolina details hateful abuse on social media after loss to Naomi Osaka, blames gambling
The situation turned ugly at the National Bank Open on Tuesday night
•
1 min read
Ukrainian women's tennis player Elina Svitolina has revealed several hateful and derogatory messages she received from bettors who were frustrated following her loss Tuesday night to Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open in Montreal, Canada.
Favored to win the match, Svitolina lost in straight sets before she was bombarded with a series of threats aimed at her and husband Gael Monfils, a French men's player on tour. Svitolina posted messages of racial slurs tossed his way in addition to vitriol from users hoping Russia "kills all you (expletive) Ukrainians" as a war continues in Svitolina's home country.
"To all the bettors: I'm a mum before I'm an athlete," Svitolina wrote in her Instagram story. "The way you talk to women -- to mothers -- is SHAMEFUL. If your mothers saw your messages, they'd be disgusted."
Unfortunately, this is not the first time an athlete on the women's tour has highlighted online abuse following a match. Britain's Katie Boulter told the BBC in an interview during the French Open she was horrified by some of the messages she received from angry gamblers.
In June, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) published a season-wide report outlining the scale of abuse directed at players on social media and asked decision-makers within the gambling industry to step in and invoke change.
The report included the following findings according to the WTA and ITF:
• Angry gamblers sent 40% of all detected abuse across the year.
• Ten prolific accounts were responsible for 12% of all abuse -- of these, nine have either been suspended, posts permanently. deleted by the platform or the user has removed their post(s).
• Details of 39 account holders who sent prolific abuse have been shared with the tennis authorities and betting industry for further action.
• The most prolific abusive account sent 263 abusive messages
The 15 most "egregious cases" were further investigated and three were sent to the FBI. Security teams were notified at various tournament and grand slam sites in an effort to permanently ban the individuals from attending matches at various sites in the future.
