NEED TO KNOW
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Tennis star Elina Svitolina shared screenshots of angry messages she received following her tournament loss to Naomi Osaka
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Svitolina, 30, called the messages “shameful”
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Athletes have increasingly spoken out against social media abuse in recent years, often citing a connection to frustrated sports bettors
Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina had scathing words for social media users who sent her hateful messages following a recent loss to Naomi Osaka.
Svitolina, 30, shared a handful of screenshots of social media messages she received after Tuesday night’s straight-sets loss to Osaka, 27, in the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open in Toronto, and slammed the messages as “shameful.”
“To all the bettors: I’m a mom before I’m an athlete,” Svitolina wrote alongside the screenshots. “The way you talk to women – to mothers – is SHAMEFUL. If your moms saw your messages, they’d be disgusted.”
The tennis star shared eight different slides of hateful messages she received on social media after the loss on her Instagram Stories along with her statement.
Minas Panagiotakis/Getty
Elina Svitolina
Some of the messages called for her death and threatened her with sexual assault. Others claimed she was “corrupt” and “selling matches” because the outcome was different than they predicted, while other messages referenced and celebrated the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine. Other messages included racist slurs about her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils, who is Black.
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Afterwards, Svitolina thanked her followers for sending her supportive messages in response to the posts.
“Thank you so much for all your love,” she wrote. “It means the world to me!”
Svitolina wrote another message in Ukrainian thanking her supporters for their kind words after she shared the hateful messages, writing that the support she received was “incredible.”
Athletes across all sports have spoken out in recent years about the increase in social media abuse they’ve received since sports betting became legal and far more prominent in the United States. In June, British tennis player Katie Boulter said she and her family received death threats following a loss at the French Open, the Associated Press reported.
The same day Boulter spoke out, the Women’s Tennis Association released a season-wide report on online abuse its players received throughout the year, noting that 15 cases escalated to law enforcement investigations. The WTA called on sports betting companies to do more to deter its customers from turning their anger towards athletes over failed bets.
“Online abuse is unacceptable, and something that no player should have to endure,” U.S. tennis player Jessica Pegula said in a statement at the time. “It’s time for the gambling industry and social media companies to tackle the problem at its source and act to protect everyone facing these threats.”
Read the original article on People
