Time and again, WTA players have repeatedly spoken out about online abuse. Eva Lys recently exposed abusive messages she received after a loss at Bad Homburg. Now, Linda Noskova, the current Wimbledon champion, faced death threats after her Indian Wells loss, keeping the wider issue of online abuse in tennis firmly in focus. But behind the scenes, the WTA and World Tennis have worked relentlessly to address the problem, and the latest findings now highlight the impact of those efforts.

The top two governing bodies published their second annual season-wide report recently. The findings were based on data collected through Signify Group’s Threat Matrix service. 

More than 1.2 million hate posts and comments were analysed. Out of those, over 12,000 were identified as abusive in some form. Among those internet-abusive posts, 3,726 were classified as serious abuse, including violent, sexual, racist, and targeted threatening messages against players.

The recent report also revealed that 66% of serious abusive posts or comments have been removed successfully. WTA authorities also escalated 35 accounts to law enforcement agencies, among which accounts were linked to 12 individuals, including one verified account network.

Another key finding from the report showed that 89% of the accounts responsible for serious abuse back in 2024 did not return last year.

Meanwhile, 26 highly abusive accounts on social media platforms like X and Instagram were removed. Each of those accounts had posted 30+ abusive messages, and together were responsible for 21% of all abuse detected last year.

The 2025 investigations identified 68 abusive accounts from different social media handles, either fully or partially. That number was a significant rise from the 39 accounts identified two years ago.

The WTA and World Tennis report also highlighted the growing success of coordinated efforts. Governing bodies, different tournament organisers, social media platforms, and law enforcement agencies have continued working together to reduce abuse.

WTA and World Tennis share a joint statement on online abuse report

The WTA players have especially witnessed a major rise in online abuse over the past few years. For instance, the current world No. 2, Elena Rybakina, recently decided to step away from social media.

Or take the example of Coco Gauff, who has also faced similar issues herself. After her recent loss at the All-England Club, she admitted that she expected to receive hateful comments on social media.

And today, following the encouraging figures achieved by the tennis governing bodies, both organizations released a joint statement. 

“The wellbeing of players and the tennis family is an absolute priority for us and the sport as a whole, and the use of the Threat Matrix service is a key part of our wider work on player welfare. Insight from this report is crucial to helping us broaden our knowledge of the issue and take decisive action to protect victims of vile online abuse by punishing those responsible,” it stated.

The current report also revealed that angry gamblers were responsible for almost 42% of all verified abuse detected during the 2025 season, which is also a 2% increase from a year before.

However, at the same time, Fanatics Sportsbook, a US-based betting site, became the first betting operator to adopt investigative tools, including Threat Matrix, through the ‘Bad Actor Program’.

While the situation now appears to be improving, tennis governing bodies like the WTA are hoping to see even greater reductions in the coming months.