Petkovic says betting a reason for online hate against tennis stars
German tennis player Andrea Petkovic in action against Belarus's Aliaksandra Sasnovich during their women's singles round of 16 match of the WTA German Open tournament at the Steffi Graf Stadium. Petkovic has blamed the sports betting industry as the main cause of online hate directed at tennis stars. Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
Former German professional Andrea Petkovic has blamed the sports betting industry as the main cause of online hate directed at tennis stars.
Several top tennis players have recently complained about a daily deluge of online aggression and Petkovic believes it is often gamblers who are upset with how matches pan out.
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"These are people who apparently bet their entire salary on a player, on a match in a tournament – and don't even consider that this might not be a good idea," the former world number nine told the news portal T-Online on Saturday.
According to a report by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), 8,000 social media comments were classified as abusive, threatening or violent last year. Of these, 40% came from "angry bettors."
Petkovic, who is currently working as a director at the Berlin tennis tournament, is familiar with the vile messages from her active playing days.
"Maybe 5% of all messages I received were actual threats. But the majority consisted of insults, abuse, and swearing. Once someone wrote 'I hope you die,'" Petkovic recounted.
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The now 37-year-old was unable to prevent the hate on platforms such as Instagram.
Her solution was novel.
She said: "In the first 20 or 30 minutes after a match, you hand your phone to your mum, dad, boyfriend, girlfriend or coach – and they go through all the messages and comments that came in during that time. Then it starts: delete, block, delete, block. That can take 30 minutes sometimes."
The psychological impact on tennis professionals should not be underestimated, according to Petkovic.
"Nowadays, every tournament has a mental health support service, with phone numbers players can call," she explained.
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