A recent study indicates that female tennis professionals endured more than 12,000 instances of online abuse throughout the previous year. Signify Group, which utilizes AI to monitor threats, reported that these figures remain consistent with statistics from 2024. Despite the high volume of harassment, there are signs of progress, as 66% of severe offensive content has been successfully scrubbed from platforms. Furthermore, authorities have been alerted to 35 accounts associated with 12 specific individuals.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) player board condemned the harassment as intolerable, noting that while the perpetrator count is small, the emotional toll on athletes remains high. Data shows that individuals betting on matches continue to be the primary drivers of this behavior, accounting for 42% of confirmed abuse and over half of all severe incidents in 2025.
British athlete Katie Boulter is among those who have publicly shared experiences with extreme hostility, including receiving death threats. In response, many players have urged social media companies to implement mandatory identity verification. The WTA and World Tennis organizations emphasized that curbing this trend necessitates a unified approach involving law enforcement, tech platforms, and the sports industry. While current AI-driven detection methods are yielding results, officials advocate for broader systemic change to ensure player safety.
