Katie Boulter has revealed some of the vile death threats she receives on social media just minutes after finishing tennis matches. The British No.2 opened up about the unrelenting abuse, with one message having threatened to damage her “grandmother’s grave” if she’s not “dead by tomorrow.”
Another that landed in her inbox said: “Hope you get cancer,” while one referenced a lost bet, saying: “Go to hell, I lost money my mother sent me.” Boulter revealed these types of messages, as well as explicit unsolicited photos, have become “the norm” within tennis.
“At the very start of my career, it’s probably something I took very personally… getting comments about the way you look,” she told the BBC. “It becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone. I think it increases in number and it also increases in the level of things that people say. I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now.”
“I think it just kind of shows how vulnerable we are. You really don’t know if this person is on site. You really don’t know if they’re nearby or if they know where you live or anything like that. I don’t think it’s something that I would ever say to my worst enemy. It’s just an awful, awful thing to say to anyone. It’s horrible.
“As far as death threats, it’s just not something you want to be reading straight after an emotional loss. A lot of the time you get it after you win as well.”
Boulter confessed to confronting the abusers, adding: “I’ve just tried to send them a nice message [so] maybe they can take a second and look at themselves and go: ‘Oh, well maybe I shouldn’t have sent that.’
“Sometimes the replies I actually get from that is them saying: ‘Oh no, I’m a huge fan. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to send you that stuff, but it was emotional, I didn’t mean to. You know, I still support you. I think you’re amazing.’ They don’t realise sometimes what they’ve actually said to these people.”
Boulter is braced for the level of social media abuse to increase during Wimbledon, claiming she also receives messages based on the performance of her fiance, Alex de Minaur. She continued: “Wimbledon for me would probably be pretty astronomical.
“As a couple, we actually both get a little bit from each other as well, so he tends to get some of my matches if I’ve lost, and if he’s lost then sometimes I get his and likewise sometimes when he’s won. You can get hundreds of messages after games, after points, after sets and after matches.”