"Death threats to family, my boyfriend & friends" - Emotional Coco Gauff breaks silence on horrifying online abuse after losses

Coco Gauff opened up about facing online abuse, describing it as the "worst" and "a gross kind of thing" in tennis. The American tennis star is one of over 450 WTA players receiving around 8000 abusive messages in 2024.

Tennis has been suffering from the problem of online abuse, much like several other sports. On Tuesday, the WTA released a report revealing that most of the abuse came from angry gamblers, with 15 cases escalated to law enforcement. AI data from Signify Group detected around 8,000 abusive messages targeting 458 players in 2024.

Speaking ahead of her appearance at the Berlin Open, Gauff shared a grim picture of the online abuse she has faced, revealing that she has received death threats directed at both herself and her loved ones.

"It's the worst you can get... Death threats, to your family, to yourself. I've had people DM [direct message] my boyfriend and friends about it. Racist comments, like all you can imagine. Nudity, things like that. It's a gross kind of thing that we have going on in tennis," Coco Gauff said (via DW).

Gauff emphasized the importance of continuing to raise awareness about online abuse. She called on social media platforms to take more responsibility, not just for tennis players, but for influencers and athletes across the board. The 21-year-old acknowledged the WTA’s efforts to protect players but believes the platforms themselves should play a bigger role.

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Coco Gauff believes TikTok 'does a better job' at hiding abusive comments than Instagram

Coco Gauff of the USA | (Image: Getty)

Coco Gauff is one of the younger WTA stars who is used to being on social media like the rest of the people her age. She has a prominent presence on Instagram and TikTok, but believes the latter does a better job at filtering negative comments.

"I think TikTok does a better job of filtering comments, so you don't really see it," she told DW. "But Instagram is, for me, the worst with the comment filtering. I see basically everything on there. I try to do it on my own account, to filter certain words, but people get creative and spell it out in different ways."

Fresh off her French Open triumph, Gauff heads into the grass-court season riding a wave of momentum. The 21-year-old American battled past top-tier opponents in Paris before staging a remarkable comeback against Aryna Sabalenka in the final, clinching her second Grand Slam title after the 2023 US Open.

As the tour shifts to grass, Gauff is still chasing her first title on the surface. She'll look to earn one at the Berlin Open, where she's set to face China's Wang Xinyu on Thursday, June 19.

Edited by Pritha Ghosh