American tennis player Jessica Pegula faced severe online harassment from malicious trolls following her recent loss at the French Open.
The 31-year-old was defeated by French wildcard Lois Boisson in a match that ended 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Monday.
Boisson, who emerged as a surprising story of the tournament, advanced further, defeating No. 6 seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals. The world No. 361 subsequently secured a semi-final match against Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff, guaranteeing herself a significant amount of prize money.
However, Pegula`s unexpected exit from the tournament resulted in her becoming a target for disgusting comments on social media. Some of these messages were extremely disturbing, including one user who expressed a wish for the death of her future first-born child.
Pegula, ranked world No. 3 and daughter of billionaire Buffalo Bills owners Terry Pegula, shared screenshots of the vile notifications she received on her Instagram story.
Many of these abhorrent messages were posted on a picture related to the recent tragic death of her beloved dog, Tucker.
After issuing a “viewer discretion advised” warning, Pegula displayed the comments, many of which originated from disgruntled individuals who had lost bets on her match.
One message accused her of deliberately losing, stating, “You sold this match on purpose,” and included the horrific wish, “Hopefully your first-born child will be a still birth.”
Another user wrote a cruel comment referencing her deceased pet: “Tucker is better off without this loser.”
A third individual posted a general insult: “Somewhere in the world, there is a tree that`s working really hard to produce the oxygen you waste.”
Yet another comment directly linked the abuse to gambling losses: “Stop playing tennis, brother, you`re making people lose money.”
One particularly harsh message combined an attack on her playing ability with a reference to her family`s wealth: “Just quit playing tennis and enjoy your father`s money! You are literally the most useless top-ten player ever.”
Additionally, a user sent her a picture of a playing card with the words “you die” written on it.
Pegula described the people who send such comments as “insane and delusional.”
She explained that she tries to block direct messages and turn off comments during tournament weeks, but the abusers “always find a way to my timeline.”
While online abuse hasn`t severely affected her in the past, she questioned whether other sports face this level of harassment, stating, “Does any other sport deal with this to our level?”
She expressed her desire to know if tennis is “predominantly” affected by such issues, calling it “so disturbing.”
According to Pegula, this issue is widespread among players: “Every person on tour deals with it. It`s so bad. Those are just really small snippets.”
She further revealed the horrifying nature of regular abuse: “I get told my family should get cancer and die from people on here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy.”
Comparing the situation to other sports where similar threats occasionally make headlines, Pegula asserted, “I can guarantee it`s 100 times worse” in tennis, due to the constant nature of the attacks.
She emphasized that these comments are “nonstop” for players, irrespective of victory or defeat, driven primarily by betting outcomes.
Pegula concluded by addressing the common expectation for athletes to possess toughness: “When fans get on us as athletes to be tougher and stronger etc etc, just realize you prob don`t have people sending you death threats every day and hoping your family dies and you give birth to a still-born child.”
