Former German professional Andrea Petkovic has blamed the sports betting industry as the main cause of online hate directed at tennis stars.
Several top tennis players have recently complained about a daily deluge of online aggression and Petkovic believes it is often gamblers who are upset with how matches pan out.
“These are people who apparently bet their entire salary on a player, on a match in a tournament – and don’t even consider that this might not be a good idea,” the former world number nine told the news portal T-Online on Saturday.
According to a report by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), 8,000 social media comments were classified as abusive, threatening or violent last year. Of these, 40% came from “angry bettors.”
Petkovic, who is currently working as a director at the Berlin tennis tournament, is familiar with the vile messages from her active playing days.
“Maybe 5% of all messages I received were actual threats. But the majority consisted of insults, abuse, and swearing. Once someone wrote ‘I hope you die,'” Petkovic recounted.
The now 37-year-old was unable to prevent the hate on platforms such as Instagram.
Her solution was novel.
She said: “In the first 20 or 30 minutes after a match, you hand your phone to your mum, dad, boyfriend, girlfriend or coach – and they go through all the messages and comments that came in during that time. Then it starts: delete, block, delete, block. That can take 30 minutes sometimes.”
The psychological impact on tennis professionals should not be underestimated, according to Petkovic.
“Nowadays, every tournament has a mental health support service, with phone numbers players can call,” she explained.
