21-year-old Russian-American tennis star Amanda Anisimova has not had a great 2023 so far, both on and off the court. She exited the Adelaide International 1 tournament in the second round. Soon after, her Australian Open adventure was cut short earlier than expected, following her straight-sets defeat to Marta Kostyuk. More recently, she bowed out of the Madrid Open after yet another sobering loss to Arantxa Rus. In addition to all this, she is facing a hard time on social media as well.
Recently, the World No. 46 took to Instagram to share a fan’s comment that blatantly body-shamed her. Even though the practice of social media body shaming has faced severe backlash over recent years, the recent fan comment proves that it’s still a menace.
Amanda Anisimova hits back at fan over cruel comment
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Anisimova is quite active on social media, especially on Instagram. She frequently posts selfies, most of which get plenty of likes from her followers. However, one of her followers criticized a selfie, saying, “The most unathletic body ever! Narrow shoulders and giant b**bs”.
While Anisimova could have responded to the comment bitterly, she instead chose to take it in her stride. In her response, Anisimova wrote, “Thank you”. However, she revealed her true emotions regarding the comment in a story post she shared later.
In her story, Anisimova revealed the Instagram direct message of the user who wrote the distasteful comment. The post also featured a text message from the Russian-American, which started with, “Idk what to think? lol”. Anisimova added, “The amount of people who comment on my body every day on social media … will never understand what the hyper fixation is about”.
Anisimova isn’t the first woman tennis player to be body shamed online
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Active tennis players follow strict fitness regimens to ensure they are in the best shape going into tournaments. However, despite all their efforts, they still remain targets for body shamers. For instance, in January 2023, Jelena Dokic, a former Australian tennis player, was brutally trolled for her appearance during an interview with Novak Djokovic.
On certain occasions, surprisingly, the people behind the disgusting comments tend to be former tennis players themselves. For instance, in 2021, when 23-time singles Grand Slam winner Serena Williams was still active, Ion Tiriac, a former Romanian player, criticized her.
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What are your thoughts on such fan comments on social media?
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