ATP launched a Safe Sport initiative in 2024 in collaboration with Tennis Data Innovations (TDI), Sportradar, Social Protect, and Arwen AI (Social Protect was not part of the original line-up). The aim was to use AI moderation to prevent abusive messages from reaching players. And the October 2026 report shows major positive signs.

In its second year, Safe Sport analysed more than 3.7 million comments across ATP and player social media channels and identified over 284,000 abusive ones, with more than 82% removed in real time before they reached players and fans, which amounts to around 234,000 abusive comments. The ATP said over 85% of players who received social media engagement were hit with abusive comments, which came from more than 100,000 accounts.

With Social Protect on board, moderation is also now open to men’s players at every ATP ranking, not just the top 250 in singles and top 50 in doubles, and it comes with wider platform coverage, automated threat alerts and a dedicated mobile app.

“Player welfare sits at the heart of the ATP’s safeguarding work,” said Andrew Azzopardi, ATP Director of Safeguarding. “Preventing more than 234,000 abusive comments from reaching players and fans demonstrates the tangible impact the programme is having every day.”

“Online abuse has no place in tennis. We will keep investing in the technology, expertise and partnerships that protect players, and we will continue working with the authorities to hold those responsible to account.”

The service scans players’ social media channels for toxic and abusive comments, spam, and bots in 29 languages (per 2024 release), and flagged comments are hidden in real time so that neither the players nor their followers see them. At launch, Arwen was processing 600,000 comments a day and protecting over 750 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok.

Behind the software, a team of Sportradar intelligence analysts investigates threats and potentially criminal comments to unmask those responsible and link online activity to real-world consequences. Players were also offered an educational programme on handling abuse, reducing online risks and staying safe on social media.

The ATP’s first-year report, released on August 21, 2025, gave the debut figures. Safe Sport scanned more than 3.1 million social media comments and flagged over 162,000 as “severe” abuse aimed at 245 players, hiding abusive comments as they were detected. The service was then open to Group 1 players, the top 250 in singles and top 50 in doubles, and it also covered the ATP’s own social media channels, which extended protection to fans.

More than one in ten comments on players’ posts were abusive, Azzopardi had said, and the share rose to 50% in extreme cases. He called it the tour’s first safeguard rather than a cure, since abuse would not disappear overnight, and described player wellbeing as a long-term commitment.

However, it is to be noted that the ATP’s 284,000 counts abusive comments in general, while the first year’s 162,000 counted only those rated “severe,” so the two figures cannot be compared directly.

On the investigative side, more than 1,800 comments were escalated for specialist assessment, and 690 automated threat alerts were raised in its second year. Trained investigators reviewed every alert to judge the risk to players and decide whether further action was needed. A growing number of cases are also being brought to Safe Sport by players and their representatives, which allows the programme to tailor its support.

Meanwhile, last year, Sportradar’s Integrity Services team escalated over 3,300 comments, identified 68 perpetrators and started 28 law enforcement referrals. In August 2025, Adam Pennock, Sportradar’s vice president of risk and investigations, said, “Every comment is seen, every threat is taken seriously,” adding that investigating and sanctioning perpetrators increasingly shows there are real-world consequences to online actions.

The ATP had also given players a tool away from the comment sections. In January 2025, it partnered with BUNKR, a privacy and security app created by Kurt Long and his son Trent, to offer a co-branded version to its players as a membership benefit, with a free first year and $11.99 a year after that.

By December 2025, hundreds of players had signed up, from Top 10 names to juniors and retired pros. The app combines a secure vault, a password manager, private messaging, document scanning, and encrypted notes. Its members-only messaging lets players communicate only with verified contacts, which keeps out spam and impersonators, and the founders say scams and abusive messages in players’ inboxes have risen alongside sports betting.

How things fared last year for players and how they coped

The BBC noted in August 2025, when the first-year figures came out, that Safe Sport could not catch every instance of abuse.

Even with Safe Sport in place, some players say messages still get through. Tristan Boyer told CLAY in 2025 that every player receives direct messages after every match, win or lose, usually from bettors. He said the ATP’s programme deletes some, but it does not work at times. He acknowledged that the ATP is trying and hoped it gets fixed. Germany’s Maximilian Marterer, who mostly uses Instagram, added that the platforms need to solve the problem and that it is not the players’ job.

The abuse can also follow players into the stands. After a three-set loss at the Challenger event in Ostrava in April 2025, Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong, then ranked No. 173, was confronted by a spectator who pushed through the crowd to shout that he had lost a lot of money because of him. It was the first time Wong had been harassed at a live event, and he said he “felt threatened.” He added that Challenger players get tons of death threats after losses and that it is getting out of hand.

Japan’s Taro Daniel said that he first got such messages as a teenager, on Facebook Messenger, from a stranger who said he had lost €2,000 because Daniel lost an ITF Futures match in Spain around 2010. After replying once, he learned not to, and he says it now happens after every loss. He argued that the comments cannot be filtered out without limiting free speech, so players should get a cut of betting revenue instead. He said he could live with the abuse if he were paid $50,000 a year for it, but that seeing the messages after losing money at a tournament is a slap in the face.

Other players told CLAY how they cope. Argentina’s Federico Agustín Gómez tries to stay off social media and sometimes laughs at bettors. Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics said he has bad experiences every day, even after wins, and deletes everything without opening it. Serbia’s Dušan Lajović said that some people know where players eat and where they are, which makes it hard to tell empty threats from a real danger. France’s Arthur Cazaux said he is not affected because he knows it is virtual.

Irish sports psychologist Kevin Clancy suggested players hand their accounts to a team member, or limit access to set times on a laptop, likening it to getting someone off a drug. He sees little benefit in social media but accepts this generation grew up with it, and noted that Djokovic, Nadal and Federer did not spend time reading what people said about them.

But things get more complex, because families are often pulled in too. Lorenzo Musetti told Spazio Tennis in November 2025 that he did not understand the point of “all these insults,” especially those aimed at his then-pregnant girlfriend, Veronica Confalonieri. He said he had removed everyone he does not follow from his profile because he no longer wants insults from people who lose bets and think he is selling matches.

In 2026, more ATP players have spoken about how far the abuse reaches. Alejandro Tabilo of Chile said during Roland Garros in 2026 that he gets a lot of insults but has learned not to look at them. It is harder, he said, when messages reach his family and his girlfriend. He called the problem “almost impossible to regulate” because betting companies are among the biggest sponsors of some tournaments, and said it will be around for a long time.

At the 2026 US Open, Matteo Berrettini revealed that bettors texted his brother during Roland Garros, demanding that he tell Matteo to lose. As Berrettini recalled, the messages read: “If you don’t tell him to lose, we’ll k*ll your family.”

Both reported the messages and phone numbers to the ATP. The former world No. 6 said that he and his brother are 30 and can handle it, but that younger players and women could find such messages terrifying. He asked governing bodies to set up a stronger committee or protective framework, saying “we need to protect the players,” and stressed that guarding players from gambling-related harassment should be a top priority on tour.

The latest case came in October 2026. Flavio Cobolli lost to Adrian Mannarino in the second round of the 2026 Shanghai Masters, a week after a first-round exit at the China Open, and a social media user sent a message in Italian to his father, Stefano.

The message read: “Forget the ATP Finals. Your son should get cancer and die, you f* piece of s***”. Stefano shared it on an Instagram Story and said he usually deletes such comments without a second thought, but that something must be done. He said he had considered deleting his accounts, yet felt he must “fight this plague,” and he addressed the parents of the person who sent it, hoping the message would reach them.

Safe Sport is trying to create a healthier online environment, free from hateful comments, but as Azzopardi said, nothing happens overnight. Well, the initiative would keep getting better over time, and the ATP has shown no signs of stopping, either.

The governing body also announced a wider Safeguarding Programme on December 19, 2025, to take effect in January 2026 across all ATP Tour and Challenger Tour tournaments. It follows the ATP’s Independent Safeguarding Report, rests on trauma-informed principles, and aims to prevent and respond to abuse, including harassment, bullying, domestic violence, and other misconduct.

It has three pillars – policies & procedures, prevention, and response – and includes a code of conduct, training for staff, players, support teams, and tournament personnel through 2026.

This also established the introduction of a Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) at every ATP Tour and Challenger Tour tournament, alongside confidential and anonymous reporting channels. An independent Safeguarding Advisory Panel and an external appeals process provide oversight, while Safe Sport’s AI moderation and human review cover online abuse.

The ATP also said in December 2025 that it will work with the WTA, the ITF, and the Grand Slams to push for common safeguarding standards across tennis.