Udvardy says online abuse taking mental toll on tennis players backs call for action

    Chennai, Nov 4 (PTI) The growing menace of online abuse against tennis players has become a mentally draining reality of life on the professional circuit, Hungarian Panna Udvardy said after Britain's Jodie Burrage faced death threats and a barrage of abusive messages following her first-round defeat at the Chennai Open.

     Udvardy, who herself has been at the receiving end of threats, said players were increasingly being subjected to hostility on social media, irrespective of whether they win or lose, and called for stronger measures to protect them.

     "All the players are experiencing this, which is very sad. Unfortunately, this is the world where we kind of live in, where people can just go on social media, say whatever they want and not put a face to it," Udvardy said after winning her doubles pre-quarterfinal with Dutch partner Isabelle Haverlag on Wednesday.

     "It's terrible and I hope something will be done to protect the players."

     The 27-year-old said she has developed a routine of blocking abusive accounts and refusing to engage with their messages, but admitted that the experience becomes particularly difficult after a disappointing result.

     "I usually have quite a good routine. I just block and never look at it again. That's the best thing you can do. But when you have a tough match and the first thing you see is these messages, it's mentally very, very draining," she said.

     "It's week after week, match after match, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. I don't know what can be done, but, hopefully, it's going to get better in the future."

     Her comments came after Burrage, who made a return to competitive tennis after nine months in June, received death threats and abusive direct messages following her three-set defeat to India's Vaishnavi Adkar.

     Burrage, 27, had led 5-3 in the deciding set but lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 after two hours and 47 minutes. She subsequently shared some of the abusive messages on Instagram, accompanying them with the caption: "Nice welcome back to tour. I remember why I left."

     The incident prompted German player Eva Lys to publicly question the WTA, asking: "When will something be done?"

     The WTA and other tennis governing bodies like ITF and ATP have a monitoring service programme called 'Threat Matrix' to help players report the abuse to social media platforms and also protect players and officials from online abuse and harassment.

     The issue is concerning given that online hostility can extend beyond abuse directed at players' performances.

     Udvardy experienced a far more frightening episode in March this year while competing at a WTA 125 tournament in Antalya, Turkey. An unidentified sender demanded that Udvardy deliberately lose her quarterfinal match against Anhelina Kalinina or face harm to her family.

     The messages, sent through WhatsApp, included photographs of her family members and a picture of a gun.

    Three police officers accompanied her to her quarterfinal match, while police also provided protection to her parents' and grandmother's homes. Udvardy subsequently filed a police report in Turkey.

     The Hungarian said the experiences have reinforced how important it is for players to be mentally prepared to deal with pressures beyond the court.

     Despite losing her singles match on Tuesday, Udvardy said she was determined to end her season on a positive note and was pleased to bounce back with a doubles victory.

     "It was a really tough match. I thought I didn't have an easy draw. I fought until the end, but she served great and honestly deserved to win. She stepped it up in the big moments," she said.

     The world number 86 also reflected positively on her season, during which she achieved a career-high ranking of 59 and competed in WTA 1000 events for the first time.

     "I'm really proud of the work that I'm doing all year. The biggest thing I've learned is that with the higher quality matches, I also need to manage my schedule better," she said, adding that she had felt mentally tired over the last few weeks.

     At the highest level, she believes matches are often decided by very small margins, making mental freshness crucial.

     "On this level, the matches depend on very small margins. It's one or two points, and if those are gone, then the match is gone. Mentally, you have to be really switched on the whole time," she said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)