Coco Gauff, the world No. 2 female tennis player, has called on social media companies to do more to tackle online abuse, describing the comments she receives as “gross.”
On Tuesday, the WTA Tour, which runs women’s tennis, released a report that laid out the widespread abuse aimed at players online. The report noted that much of the abuse came from disgruntled gamblers, with 15 cases so serious that law enforcement was involved.
Data provided by tech company Signify Group and detected using AI, revealed that there were around 8,000 “abusive, violent or threatening” comments sent to 458 players in 2024. More than a quarter of the abuse was received by just five players.
Speaking at the German Open in Berlin, Gauff said it was a “given” that players had to deal with online abuse.
“It’s the worst you can get,” she said. “Death threats, to your family, to yourself. I’ve had people DM [direct message] my boyfriend and friends about it. Racist comments, like all you can imagine. Nudity, things like that. It’s a gross kind of thing that we have going on in tennis.”
Pleas made to bookmakers and social media companies
In its report, published with the International Tennis Federation, the WTA called on the gambling industry to take action against the individuals behind the abuse. But Gauff emphasized that social media companies should also play their part.
“It’s something that we have to keep bringing awareness to,” she said. “I would love for some of the social media platforms to get involved, not only when it comes to tennis players. Influencers, other athletes, they all get these comments, so it’s something that can be addressed.
“I know the WTA is doing what they can to make us feel protected, but I definitely think that a lot of these platforms can step in as well.”
Asked by DW whether she was confident things could change, Gauff said: “I feel like they can.”
“I think TikTok does a better job of filtering comments, so you don’t really see it,” she added. “But Instagram is, for me, the worst with the comment filtering. I see basically everything on there. I try to do it on my own account, to filter certain words, but people get creative and spell it out in different ways.
Lines can blur between virtual and physical
“For me, it’s more about banning these accounts and banning people with the same phone number or email from making new accounts. You can block [them], but they just go and make a new account. There has to be a way to fix that system,” Gauff said.
It also emerged on Tuesday that a man accused of stalking British tennis player Emma Raducanu had been stopped from buying tickets for Wimbledon, the next Grand Slam tournament of the year.
Gauff suggested that she had never experienced anything “threatening,” but admitted that someone had tried to follow her home once. In Berlin, security guards are present behind the players’ benches on court, with security also in attendance during Gauff’s press conference.
Meanwhile, the 21-year-old told DW that she had accepted an apology from Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1, after Sabalenka’s comments following her defeat to Gauff in the French Open final earlier this month.
Sabalenka had claimed that Gauff won “not because she played incredible, but because I made all of those mistakes” — a reference to her 70 unforced errors in the final.
“She texted me two or maybe three days ago, she sent a text apologizing” Gauff said. “I understand things can get emotional and things can be said. I definitely appreciate the fact that she reached out because I was a little bit surprised by the whole thing. It’s dirt under a rug and we should all move on.”
Edited by: Matt Pearson
