Tennis players are no longer surprised by a threat, but the organization of Roland Garros wants to protect them

Also read: a player towel for 50 euros – at Roland Garros it is no longer just about tennis. A report from Paris.

Stephens does not have the exact answer to the question of how she thinks it will end cyberbullying can be made. She has set up a series of ‘forbidden keywords’ on her Instagram, but the black player passively sees that the abuse continues. “It doesn’t stop some from typing an asterisk in place of a letter in a word or otherwise conveying a message,” says Stephens, who bodyguard – the name of the conscious AI technology – from Roland Garros has not yet installed.

Stephens’ statements are certainly not isolated. Almost every tennis player has to deal with ‘cyberbullying’ or worse than that. On any level. “It really is a very big problem,” says Dutch tennis player Sidané Pontjodikromo (22), who, as number 560 in the world, is on the margins of professional tennis. “I have been through everything. From anonymous figures who work for parties via Messenger trying to get in touch to fix parties to unknown people who have pictures of my mother and my sister accompanied by death threats. It’s scary the first few times. At some point you get used to it.”

During Roland Garros, threats to tennis players are also the order of the day. For example, the Russian Daniil Medvedev will be the target of disappointed gamblers after his surprising defeat against the Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild. “This has been going on for years, hasn’t it?” says Arantxa Rus (32) after her elimination against the Austrian Julia Grabher, from whom she lost in two sets on court 12. “I am not concerned with it. Almost all negative messages are from gamblers. I often laugh about it.” And no, she didn’t use the FFT’s software.

The Dutchman Tallon Grepes has a similar attitude. He is scolded via Twitter during the first round when a defeat threatens against the Spaniard Pedro Martínez. An anonymous Twitter user calls him “asshole”. Another wishes him “AIDS.” Greek track himself shrugs his shoulders. During a grand slam tournament like Roland Garros, he says he receives two hundred to three hundred messages via his social media.

The stream of hate messages comes in most cases from gamblers who have bet on his party. The monetary loss apparently prompts many to vent their frustrations directly to the tennis players. “It’s sad that it’s happening, but I don’t care. I often have to laugh about it,” says Greek track, who will face Polish tennis player Hubert Hurkacz in the second round on Wednesday. “It hurts me more when family members get annoying messages. During my games, my manager tries to stop everything on my Instagram. It’s the time we live in, you can hardly stop it.”

Keep away a lot

Dille Rikkert, at House of Sports as a manager associated with the Dutch tennis player Botic van de Zandschulp, recognizes the problem. “We manage Botic’s email address. That way we can keep a lot from him. In addition, he is not someone who is very active on social media. Nevertheless, there are always certain figures who utter curses. Often by international gamblers who apparently have other interests. There is little you can do about it but ignore it.”

Nevertheless, the Federation Française de Tennis (FFT) make a serious effort to protect the hundreds of professional tennis players during the tournament – including youth players and wheelchair tennis players.

The French tennis federation has formed a partnership with the company Bodyguard in an attempt to put up a wall against the attacks on social media. Roland Garros is the first sporting event in the world to offer such a free service to athletes. The technology, which was developed in 2017, is set up anyway on the tennis tournament’s official social media accounts and those of the French tennis federation.

The players themselves choose whether they want to use it. If they want to, they can scan a QR code through which artificial intelligence in combination with the knowledge of linguists should serve as a kind of filter to block unwanted comments on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Discord. The system can analyze words posted on social media in less than 200 milliseconds. The aim is not to let anything threatening slip through the virtual safety net, but at the same time avoid censorship. According to Caroline Flaissier, director of the FFT, the mental health of the players is of great importance. “That is a priority for us. We do not tolerate any form of violence and want to protect the players so that they are in top condition when they participate in the tournament,” said Flaissier.

According to the official rules of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), professional tennis players must remain silent about attempted bribery or receiving death threats. They must report such matters to the ITF, who then forward them to the Tennis Integrity Unit. It will then be considered whether an investigation should be opened. So much for the theory. Because many in the tennis world do it differently in practice, says the novice professional tennis player Pontjodikromo: “You largely let it pass you by. In the worst case, you block an account. You can’t spend all day dealing with anonymous frustrated gamblers. As long as the sport itself receives money through the sponsorship of large gambling companies, this will continue.”