WTA players continue to suffer from vile abuse and attacks on social media. In the latest incident, American Katie Volynets saw her DMs flooded with derogatory remarks after crashing out of the Wuhan Open.
The World No. 88 qualifier strung together impressive performances, but her campaign went off the rails against Guo Hanyu’s fairytale run. The Chinese wildcard notched consecutive wins for the first time in a WTA main draw to pull off a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3) upset to dispatch the American.
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Following her exit, two trolls targeted her with brutal comments about her personal life. In response, she put her abusers on blast, posting their vile messages to her Instagram Stories alongside a blunt warning.
“The abuse is next level @dejanlailic. Get off my page and find something better to do,” Volynets wrote in her first Instagram story.
“Unbelievable that tennis players give their whole heart on the tennis court, and then get treated with this kind of disrespect @bear.93054313,” she posted in another story.
The Katie Volynets incident comes after fellow American Coco Gauff was subjected to an “insane” amount of racial abuse following the point replay incident against teenager Xinran Sun at the China Open.
Fans slam WTA for silence on Gauff’s racism row
The WTA has maintained a clear stance on players suffering from online abuse and racist remarks. After Coco Gauff became a victim of it once again, former stars including Andy Roddick, Rennae Stubbs, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and others have defended the two-time Grand Slam champion against relentless hate.
However, the lingering silence has stung fans and sparked massive outrage on social media. It has been more than a week since the incident unfolded and the organization has yet to break its silence on it or release an official statement. Enraged by the silence, fans called on the WTA to “speak up”.
Amid the governing body’s extended silence, the United Nations publicly defended the 22-year-old with a bold message to her trolls and wrote on X:
“Racist messages such as those targeting #tennis player @CocoGauff online are appalling and illustrate that Black female athletes are specifically targeted for vitriol and racial abuse. There is no place in sport for racial or sexist slurs and abuse. Players, coaches, and sports bodies need to stand up for those facing such attacks and fans need to push back against those who sully sport with racism and sexism.”
After a “draining” period, Coco Gauff withdrew from the Wuhan Open to prioritize physical recovery. She will return to action during the WTA Finals in Indian Wells next month.
Edited by Pritha Ghosh
