Not just on the Internet
German tennis ass talks about threats
June 17, 2025 – 5:56 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Tennis star Eva Lys has recently spoken more often about insults online. But the threats also take place in real space.
Tennis player Eva Lys not only experiences insults and threats on the Internet. “Unfortunately in real space. You always have to be on my hat. I have had no nice interactions in the past few months,” said Lys 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 have caused a stir in the tennis scene for the former world rankings Iga świątek and the former US Open winner Emma Raducanu.
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.
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.
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.”