In a society where social media is becoming more prominent, Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund has become the latest player to suffer from online abuse.
The world No.46 received received a series of hateful message on his Facebook account following his exit at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Edmund was edged out 6-4, 7-6(5) by world No.2 Novak Djokovic in the second round of the tournament.
“You need to have your throat cut out and your decomposing, bug infested body fed to wild pigs.” One shocking message said.
The appalling comments also include calling for the 22-year-old Brit ‘to be raped’ and calling him a ‘stupid challenger player with no wins.’ Edmund had reached one semifinal and five quarterfinals on the ATP Tour since 2016. Last year he progressed to the fourth round of a grand slam tournament for the first time at the US Open.
Edmund is not alone in experiencing social media hatred. Former top-60 player Sam Groth has blamed the rise in online abuse to gambling. According to statistics, tennis is the second biggest gambling market in Great Britain after football. In December 2016 the Australian forwarded a series of messages to the ATP after his girlfriend started to receive death threats.
“I have taken it to the ATP and other people, because there are times this year (in 2016) where it has got to the stage where it is not acceptable. We are playing a sport. It is your life,” he told The Weekend Australian.
“The amount of abuse I have copped … you have never seen anything like it. I get death threats against me, death threats against my family, I get death threats against my girlfriend, she gets death threats and abuse.”
It is a familiar situation on the women’s tour as well. Olympic champion Monica Puig admitted that she has been forced to limit her use of social media following numerous negative comments about her. Madison Keys has also spoken out about the problem.
“It really used to bring me down,” Keys told CNN earlier this year. “This happens to a lot of players and a lot of young people who are very influenced by social media.”
The fight back
Trying to shut out the social media trolls is a hard task, but action is being taken. This year the ITF ended their deal with gambling company Betway early in a bid to protect players.
“We strongly condemn any form of online abuse of players at any level of the game. Our aim is to protect players from these sorts of abuses,’ ITF president Dave Haggerty said.
Despite the efforts of the ITF, the abuse continues online. Today it was Tomas Berdych’s turn after he squandered a 6-1, 5-2, lead to crash out of Indian Wells.
@tomasberdych how much have you won yesterday? You should be banned for the rest of your life
— Fernando González (@fer_gonzalezt) 14 March 2017
The condemnation of these appalling remarks continues, but finding a way to stop them is proving to be a losing battle.
