
American tennis player Shelby Rogers told the media that she is expecting to receive death threats on social media following her US Open fourth-round defeat by Emma Raducanu. The 43rd ranked player in the world lost to the British teenager 6-2 6-1 in the 4th round of the Grand Slam.
The 28-year-old said that she is going to get nine million death threats and she is sadly used to it at this point in her career. She wished that social media didn’t exist sometimes because of such things sent by so-called “fans”. Rogers’ American compatriot Sloane Stephens also had stated regarding her feelings about the online abuse she got after her 5-7 6-2 6-3 third-round loss to Angelique Kerber. Stephens said that she received more than 2,000 messages of abuse which include racist and sexist comments regarding her and posted examples of these messages in her stories on Instagram.
Rogers added that people may go through her profile right now and they will see a bunch of comments saying that she is probably a “fat pig” and other unmentionable words she can’t say in front of anybody. She continued by saying it’s really unfortunate and some of it does get to their head sometimes.
Rogers had defeated World No. 1 and this year’s Wimbledon champion Ash Barty in the third round where she performed excellently in the third set to win the match.
The Women’s Tennis Association has said its working with professional players in regards to this issue along with Theseus, a risk assessment and management company and will shut down accounts and will notify authorities if need be.