Female tennis players faced 12,000 abusive posts in 2025

In 2025, female tennis players faced more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media, according to a report from the Signify Group's threat matrix service. This report indicated that the number of abusive posts remained consistent compared to 2024. Despite the troubling data, the report highlighted that 66% of serious abuse was removed from platforms, and law enforcement was notified about 35 accounts connected to 12 individuals.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) player board condemned the abuse as "unacceptable," emphasizing that its impact on players can be significant. A previous report from 2024 revealed that 48% of abusive posts originated from angry gamblers. In 2025, this figure dropped to 42% of verified abuse, while complaints of serious abuse linked to gamblers increased to 59%.

Katie Boulter, Britain's number two player, publicly shared her experience of receiving death threats through social media. In response to the pervasive issue, fellow players advocated for social media platforms to implement identity verification processes. The WTA player board acknowledged the efforts undertaken so far, stating: "While it comes from a relatively small number of accounts, its impact can be significant. It’s reassuring to know the WTA and World Tennis are taking this seriously, supporting players and making it clear that this kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable."

The threat matrix relies on artificial intelligence and human analysts to monitor content across major social media platforms, including X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. The WTA and World Tennis expressed the need for "collective action" from various stakeholders, including social media companies, law enforcement, governing bodies, and the gambling industry, to make meaningful progress in combating abuse.

They further stated, "Insight from this report is crucial to helping us broaden our knowledge of the issue and take decisive action to protect victims of vile online abuse by punishing those responsible. While today’s findings illustrate the effectiveness of that action to date, further significant progress requires collective action."

In contrast, in men's tennis, a new AI-driven system successfully blocked 162,000 abusive posts in a single year, highlighting the scale of the problem across genders.