Tennis champion Elina Svitolina speaks out after receiving sickening death threats
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina has spoken out about the deluge of hateful abuse she received online from frustrated gamblers after losing a match in Canada.
The world No.13 received messages including wishing her death and celebrating Russia killing her compatriots.
Following her straight-sets loss to Naomi Osaka in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open on Tuesday, Svitolina posted screenshots of the messages on Instagram.
The abuse was directed at her, while other racial slurs also targeted her husband - French tennis player Gael Monfils who is Black.
One abuser hoped Russia 'kills all you sh**** Ukrainians' in the war raging in Svitolina's country.
Another said: 'I just hope you f****** die tonight,' before adding a comment which is too horrific to publish.
The tennis star posted screenshots of several other obscene messages which have no place being published, before speaking out on her Instagram story.
'To all the bettors: I'm a mum before I'm an athlete,' Svitolina wrote.
'The way you talk to women — to mothers — is SHAMEFUL. If your mothers saw your messages, they'd be disgusted.'
Earlier this year, British player Katie Boulter said she had received death threats during the French Open targeting her and her family, while the WTA and ITF called on betting companies to do more to stem the flood of online abuse players face on social media.
Boulter, the girlfriend of Australian star Alex de Minaur, told the BBC in an interview online abuse has become the norm and she thinks many of the messages are sent by people who are placing bets on tennis matches.
Her comments coincided with the WTA and ITF publishing a first season-wide report into online abuse, showing 458 tennis players were targeted by more than 8,000 abusive comments and posts on social media in 2024.
The report said 40 per cent of the abuse came from 'angry gamblers'.
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