British number two Katie Boulter has lifted the lid on the level of abuse aimed at some tennis players and revealed she and her family have received death threats.
Boulter shared her experiences with BBC Sport to highlight the issue of players receiving toxic messages online.
The 28-year-old’s examples included a message telling her to buy “candles and a coffin for your entire family” with a reference to her “grandmother’s grave if she’s not dead by tomorrow”, one stating she should “go to hell” as she had cost the poster money, and another stating “hope you get cancer”.
Boulter said: “I just wonder who the person is that has sent that. I don’t think it’s something that I would ever say to my worst enemy. It’s just an awful, awful thing to say to anyone. It’s horrible.”
Boulter believes much of the abuse comes from gamblers who have lost money and while she has learned how to better handle it over the years, incidents can raise genuine concerns for her safety.
She said: “I think it just kind of shows how vulnerable we are. You really don’t know if this person is on site. You really don’t know if they’re nearby or if they know where you live or anything like that.”
The message Boulter received relating to her family came during her French Open first-round victory over Carole Monnet on May 29.
And she is concerned that both the frequency and severity of the abuse is increasing and worries about the potential impact on younger players.
She said: “I think it increases in number and it also increases in the level of things that people say. I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now.”
