Tennis player Lys experiences threats “also in real space”

Tennis player Lys not only experiences insults and threats on the Internet. “Unfortunately in real space. You always have to be on your hat. I have had no nice interactions in the past few months,” said the Hamburg woman at the WTA tournament in Berlin, without naming details. “But most of it happens online because a lot of people hide,” said the 23-year-old.

More and more tennis players are making threats to themselves public. Most recently, stalking incidents for the former world rankings Iga Swiatek and the former US Open winner Emma Raducanu caused a sensation in the tennis scene.

“Threats of Murder. Sexism. Everything.

Eva Lys

Most of the time, however, are hate comments on social media. On Tuesday, the British Katie Boulter reported murder threats against herself and her family. “Every single player on the tour gets these threats after every match – whether man or woman. I got them after this match today, I got them yesterday,” said Lys. In Berlin, she had lost in round one in both singles and in doubles.

Lys suspects sports betting as a background

Born in Ukrain, the senders mostly suspect people who bet on their matches. “One hundred percent. They also write to me. You get messages in which they write how much money they have lost because of you and they threaten you and say that you should turn it back. They have no shame. They are offended, they are murder threats. Everything,” said Lys. She has also filed a complaint.

WTA filters messages by artificial intelligence

In order to better protect the players on the Internet, the women’s professional organization WTA introduced a technological solution with other organizations at the beginning of last year. Artificial intelligence should filter messages. Around 12,000 posts and comments that break the rules were discovered between January and October 2024. 15 accounts were forwarded to national law enforcement authorities.

“If you delete the comments, you won’t come after,” said Lys. The German described the exchange with the WTA as good. “There are conversations with suggestions on how to contain the threats. If you do not do anything about it, it will degenerate,” said Lys, making it clear: “There is not enough measures right now. There is not much that you can do.”

Two years after the abuse scandal around Dirk Hordorff, another suspected victim reports. Again there is no clear help from the association. Didn’t the DTB learn from the case?

After the French Open frustration, the Hamburger had to take the next defeat. In the final of Stuttgart, Zverev lost to Taylor Fritz.