Iga Swiatek shares vile online abuse after getting bagelled at China Open | Tennis | Sport

Iga Swiatek has hit back after receiving a torrent of online abuse following her China Open loss. The top seed in Beijing suffered a 6-4 4-6 6-0 defeat to Emma Navarro in the round of 16 – her first-ever loss at the tournament, having lifted the title during her only prior appearance in 2023.

Swiatek later spoke about the sad reality of being an athlete, sharing a snippet of the vile comments she received on social media as trolls branded her “pathetic” and “mediocre.” It’s unfortunately a common cycle for tennis players, with the likes of Jessica Pegula and Katie Boulter also addressing social media abuse in recent months.

The Polish star came into the China Open full of confidence after lifting the title in Korea last month and stormed into the last 16 before coming unstuck against No. 16 seed Navarro. It was a tough day at the office for Swiatek, who hit 70 unforced errors and candidly admitted she “just played bad”.

But Swiatek was inundated with vile online abuse after losing earlier than some would have expected, and took to her Instagram story to respond to the trolls.

One comment read: “You have no discipline, no talent, no ability to make adjustments, no room to play a different style, no metal strength… It’s honestly shocking.” Others called Swiatek names, or left offensive emojis.

“Nowadays, this is a sad part of our reality in sports. Bots, betting, but also ‘fans’,” the six-time Major winner wrote.

“It is worth considering, especially since World Mental Health Day is just a few days away.”

Swiatek has long been open about the online abuse players receive, previously calling on tennis’ governing bodies to take action and provide athletes with tools to combat the trolls. The French Open previously provided AI protection to filter out similar comments.

“Maybe in the future, have some solutions such as using AI to make it safer for us. I feel like we can’t be on the internet and feel safe anymore,” the former world No. 1 said last summer.

“You have to really be careful on what you’re reading, who you’re following. I know that there are some tools that, for example, Roland Garros offered for us.

“This app that we can have on the phone, and it’s going to block the hateful messages. It’s also going to learn with you when you’re going to tag some messages as hateful. … It would be nice if we had more opportunities to use these kind of tools.”

Swiatek is sadly not the only tennis star receiving hateful and abusive messages. After going out of the French Open this year, world No. 7 Pegula said the comments had become “normalised”.

She added: “This stuff has never really bothered me much but does any other sport deal with this to our level? I’d love to know because it seems to be predominantly tennis?? It’s so disturbing.”

And British ace Boulter recently opened up on horrific death threats she received, telling the BBC that one troll wrote: “Hope you get cancer.”