Katie Boulter had just lost a tie-break at the French Open when the death threats started.
It did not matter that the Briton would go on to win the match.
“Hope you get cancer,” said one message.
Another – laced with expletives – referenced damaging her “grandmother’s grave if she’s not dead by tomorrow” and “candles and a coffin for your entire family”.
A third said: “Go to hell, I lost money my mother sent me.”
The British number two’s response, as she reads through them 10 days later, is a mix of despair, resignation and fear.
Boulter agreed to sit down with BBC Sport to provide unprecedented insight into the volume and nature of abuse received by players, including sharing screenshots of her private inbox.
‘It shows how vulnerable we are’
Boulter’s reasoning for sharing the messages is two-fold.
The first, she says, is abusive content like this has become “the norm”. Boulter, 28, also has fears about the impact it can have on younger players.
“At the very start of my career, it’s probably something I took very personally… getting comments about the way you look,” she says.
“It becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone.
“I think it increases in number and it also increases in the level of things that people say. I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now.”
The message threatening her loved ones was sent during her French Open first-round match against Carole Monnet on 29 May.
After losing the first-set tie-break, Boulter rallied to win 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-1 – her first victory in the main draw at Roland Garros.
As she reflects on the messages she receives, she says it is hard to differentiate between those that constitute a genuine risk and those that do not.
“I think it just kind of shows how vulnerable we are,” Boulter says. “You really don’t know if this person is on site. You really don’t know if they’re nearby or if they know where you live or anything like that.”
Looking again at the message hoping she gets cancer, she shakes her head.
“I just wonder who the person is that has sent that,” she says.
“I don’t think it’s something that I would ever say to my worst enemy. It’s just an awful, awful thing to say to anyone. It’s horrible.”
Calls to tackle abuse linked to betting
Boulter believes a lot of the abuse she is sent is from people who have placed bets on her matches, given it comes after victories as well as defeats.
She says she has become better at moving on from it, or simply not looking at her direct messages, but the impact is clear.
“As far as death threats, it’s just not something you want to be reading straight after an emotional loss,” she says.
“A lot of the time you get it after you win as well.”
Statistics shared exclusively with BBC Sport demonstrate the level of abuse aimed at players through social media, and what is being done to try to address it.
The figures – provided by data science firm Signify, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) – show that in 2024, about 8,000 abusive, violent or threatening messages were sent publicly to 458 tennis players through their social media accounts.
A significant proportion of abuse stems from betting, according to Signify, which has been working with tennis authorities on detecting abuse through an artificial intelligence-led detection system called Threat Matrix.
More than a quarter of all abuse (26%) was targeted at five players.
The most prolific account sent 263 abusive messages, and 15 accounts were escalated to law enforcement.
Nine of the 10 most prolific accounts – the majority of which were related to angry gamblers – were either suspended or had content removed.
Details of 39 account holders were shared with the tennis authorities and betting industry for further action.
Across the year, angry gamblers sent 40% of all detected abuse, with messages clearly related to betting activity because of the timing or content of the abuse.
Asked for a response, a Betting and Gaming Council spokesperson said its members “do not tolerate abuse on social media, which has no place in betting or sport”.
It added: “It is vital social media companies take swift action against users, and remove offensive content.”
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, declined to provide a comment on the record but has developed various tools to try to prevent people from seeing abuse – including hiding and filtering offensive or unwanted comments or images and technology that tracks and removes abuse.
