Menacing online abuse
US tennis star Jessica Pegula, 31, has lashed out at bettors after receiving abuse and death threats following her defeat at the French Open tournament at Roland Garros.
world No.3 called bettors “insane and delusional”
The world No.3 called bettors “insane and delusional” and that despite her online efforts to avoid comments during tournaments, “they always find a way to my timeline.”
Tennis fan LaWanda took to X with images of the abuse Pegula posted on her Instagram Story:
As the screenshots reveal, multiple social media users utilized an Instagram post by Pegula mourning the passing of her pet dog Tucker to heap abuse on the tennis star for her crushing three-set defeat at Roland Garros.
According to The Mirror, Pegula also received multiple menacing threats after losing to wildcard Lois Boisson in the fourth round of the French Open in Paris.
Abuse and threats
Pegula posted Thursday that the screenshots she shared were essentially the tip of the iceberg. “I get told my family should get cancer and die from people here on a regular basis.”
Abusive comments included: “Tucker wants to know why you can’t hit the ball straight” and “how much did they pay you to lose to that woman?”
Pegula gave an insight into the menacing comments when telling her fans: “you probably don’t have people sending you death threats every day and hoping your family dies and you give birth to a still born child.”
Pegula stated the abuse has never much bothered her, but deemed it “disturbing” and asked if the toxicity was worse in tennis than all other sports.
The tennis ace, however, stated that while she’d seen “comments/threats/stalking making headlines in other sports” in tennis it was “100 times worse.”
it’s whatever they bet on”
“These comments are nonstop for us. Win or lose – it’s whatever they bet on.”
Wider issue
Pegula’s referencing of stalking is particularly topical and happened last week at the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia to multiple US Olympic gold medal-winning sprint star Gabby Thomas.
Thomas took to X to call out a bettor who heckled her at the track event and later boasted that his abuse helped win him a parlay.
