What can be more disturbing than losing a match for a tennis player? For Alexandre Muller, it’s the barrage of online threats that followed. After his Wimbledon campaign ended on July 5th, Müller shifted his focus to the clay courts of the Swedish Open, hoping for a fresh start. However, his latest run has been marred by more than just defeats; threats that are shaking the very foundation of his professional journey. 

The Russian tennis star lost his first match itself at the Swedish Open. Playing against Kazakhstan’s Denis Yevseyev, Muller lost in straight sets 7-5, 7-5. While this was enough to disgruntle the 27-year-old, his woes did not end there. The Russian started to receive online threats from bettors, who also took his family on target. Taking to his X account, Muller shared a screenshot of an Instagram chat.

With an image of guns and bullets, the chat hurled abuses at the Russian player. Sent in French, the message’s translation reads,  “son of a b*tch, you’re going to die. I saw you, shoot yourself in the head, you’re dead, son of a b*tch.” More texts followed from the same chat as he continued hurling abuses.

“These dead sons of bi**hes.” He then put his family on target as well. “I hope your whole family dies of cancer.”  This highlights the sad reality of the players and the situations they face off the court. Surprisingly, Muller is not the only player who complained of such happenings recently.

A couple of days ago, Amélie Van Impe, the Tennis prospect from Belgium, also revealed facing threats from bettors. While she hasn’t played many high-level matches, her participation in tournaments where betting is allowed has created several challenges for her. Speaking about the same with Belgian outlet 7sur7, she reflected on her furiousness.

“I get messages every day from frustrated punters who are angry because they’ve lost money because of me. Two minutes after a match, they’re already there. Mostly on Instagram, sometimes on WhatsApp. Somehow they’ve got my number.” But, as the tennis players have continued to receive vitriol, it makes us ponder if any efforts have been made by the International community.

Has the International Tennis Community taken any measures to curb online harassment?

Back in December 2023, tennis players reported a rise in online abuse as sports betting became more widespread, with betters taking their frustrations out on the athletes. The Threat Matrix, a specialist service developed by AI company Signify Group, was commissioned to conduct a study in which it monitored over 1.6 million public posts on X and 19,000 Instagram comments sent to a sample of 454 players competing at a range of professional tennis tournaments in 2022. The results were definitely worrisome. 

One in four players whose accounts were monitored were subject to abuse. A total of 546 offensive Tweets from 438 accounts were flagged and reported to both social media platforms and law enforcement agencies for appropriate action. In the wake of this, the major governing bodies of tennis like the International Tennis Federation(ITF), Women’s Tennis Association(WTA), United States Tennis Association(USTA), and the All-England Club launched a proactive measure to protect athletes from online abuses and threats.

The details about this were shared in December last year and the process began in January 2024. The associations started to monitor the Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok of tennis players “to protect and support athletes from the mental trauma and potential real-world threat of online harassment and abuse.” As per the press release by ITF, “support will also be provided for players who receive abuse or threats via private Direct Messaging.”

Now, with Alexandre Muller being the latest victim of such online abuse, only time will tell if the international tennis community will take some major action yet again.