World No.22 Ivo Karlovic has publicly shamed Belgium international football player Benito Raman for apparently insulting him on social media.
Roman is a striker for Standard Liege and played for the Belgium under-21 squad between 2014- 2016, scoring five goals. If Karlovic’s allegation is proven true, he is likely to face disciplinary action from his sporting body. Not only did Roman allegedly insult the Croat via his official account. He also let loose that he bet 2,500 euros on Karlovic’s match.
Yesterday Karlovic defeated Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, at the Hungarian Open. It is unclear if the message was in relation to that match or something else. Whilst the social media post does suggest the insult came directly from Raman’s account, his manager has since denied that he was the one who wrote it.
“Raman’s contract has stipulated that he can not gamble for money and all his accounts have been removed. The messages are also written in a specific form of English Raman that would not use,” nieuwsblad.be quote him as saying.
It is not the first time Raman has been caught up in controversy. In December 2015 he was suspended from the sport for homophobia. He was found guilty of ‘inciting homophobia’ towards rival club Club Brugge.
Social media abuse in tennis
In recent months tennis players has fell victim to trolling on social media. Earlier this year outraged erupted when one member of the public called for Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund ‘to be raped.’ Australian player Sam Groth revealed last year he received death threats online.
The rise in social media abuse has been linked to betting on tennis. Last year the International Tennis Federation (ITF) ended their partnership with Betway.
“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.
In Great Britain, tennis is the second biggest gambling market behind football. It has been reported by The Daily Mail that the money involved is ‘billions of pounds.’
