Garcia calls out online abuse after US Open loss

NEW YORK — Caroline Garcia, a US Open semifinalist in 2022, on Wednesday shared some of the derogatory online messages she has received following recent losses and pointed to “unhealthy betting” as one of the reasons players are targeted on social media.

Other players echoed Garcia’s lament, including defending champion Coco Gauff, who said: “You could be having a good day, and then somebody will literally tell you, ‘Oh, go kill yourself.’ You’re, like, ‘OK, thanks.'”

Garcia, a 30-year-old from France who has been ranked as high as No. 4, was seeded 28th at Flushing Meadows but was eliminated by Renata Zarazúa 6-1, 6-4 in the first round Tuesday. Zarazúa is ranked 92nd and is making her US Open debut.

Garcia, in a lengthy post on X, wrote about the “hundreds” of such messages directed her way and offered examples of “just a few,” including one telling her she should consider suicide and another that read, “I hope your mom dies soon.”

“And now, being 30 years old, although they still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” Garcia wrote. “It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.”

In her post, Garcia also raised the issue of the sport and tournaments partnering with betting companies and speculated on whether that has contributed to a rise in such behavior.

“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” Garcia noted. “The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.”

She continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?”

Players have called out social media harassment in the past.

“You hear a lot of nasty things, and people talk about your appearance, your family’s appearance and all these things,” Gauff said. “If you are already struggling with your own mental issues and, on top of that, you have people digging deeper, it is tough.”

As Frances Tiafoe, a semifinalist in New York in 2022, said: “People are saying outlandish … stuff. It’s just wild.”

“I try not to look at the comments,” 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu said, mentioning that she will ask her PR person to scroll through and let her know when there are positive ones. “Because there’s always going to be a negative comment and I’ve learned that the hard way.”

Grand Slam tournaments have been trying to help prevent messages from reaching the athletes.

The French Open partnered in 2022 with a company that uses artificial intelligence to filter players’ social media accounts, and the groups that run the US Open, Wimbledon, the women’s tour and the lower-level ITF Tour announced in December that they were starting a service to monitor for “abusive and threatening content” on X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.

“Many before me have raised the subject,” Garcia said. “And still, no progress has been made. Social media platforms don’t prevent it, despite AI being in a very advanced position.”

She ended her post with a reminder that athletes, and others in the public eye, are human. “I know those who write these terrible messages won’t change because of this. But maybe you, next time you see a post from an athlete, singer or any other person, that has failed or lost, you will remember that she or he is also a human being, trying his best in life.”

Garcia’s message was met with almost immediate support from her peers, including Madison Keys, Katie Boulter and Paula Badosa.

Jessica Pegula, ranked No. 6, agreed with Garcia’s sentiment and shared her own experience.

“The constant death threats and family threats are normal now,” Pegula wrote in response to Garcia. “Win or lose.”

Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.