The WTA has offered additional support to Jodie Burrage after she received death threats and online abuse following a first-round defeat at a tournament in India on Tuesday.
Burrage shared a raft of abusive messages sent to her Instagram account after a gruelling 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat by India’s Vaishnavi Adkar at the Chennai Open. The 27-year-old, who was playing her first WTA Tour match since last summer, accompanied the messages with the caption: “Nice welcome back to the tour. I remember why I left.”
It is three years since the WTA – in partnership with Wimbledon, World Tennis and the United States Tennis Association – launched the AI-led Threat Matrix service, which aims to identify and tackle online abuse against players and officials.
A WTA spokesperson said in a statement: “Protecting players and the wider tennis family from online threats and abuse is a key priority for the WTA. We have WTA staff on the ground in Chennai offering Jodie support, along with our wider player welfare and Threat Matrix team.
“As much of the abuse players receive comes through direct messages, the WTA has offered Jodie additional support, including a private channel to report abusive direct messages, and moderation that hides abusive comments on public channels before she sees them.
Quick GuideWorld No 1 Zverev crashes out of Paris Masters
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Alexander Zverev made a losing start to his reign as world No 1 on Wednesday as the two-time Grand Slam champion went down 7-6 (5), 6-2 to an inspired Lorenzo Musetti at the Paris Masters.
Playing his opening match in the round of 32 in the French capital, the German accumulated errors to tamely exit the tournament against the 24-year-old Italian.
Former world No 5 Musetti became the fifth man to defeat a player in his opening match as the world number one.
In the opening set, both players staved off break points in consecutive games midway through the frame, but it always looked destined to be decided by a tie-break.
The Hamburg native got ahead 5-2 in the breaker but Musetti rallied to string together a run of five consecutive points to take a one-set lead, sealing it with a huge serve out wide to Zverev’s backhand.
The Italian was now brimming with confidence and after failing to convert a break opportunity in the first game of the second set, he made no mistake two games later as he capitalised on an error-strewn display from Zverev.
Musetti continued to deploy a sliced backhand to devastating effect as unforced errors mounted on the 2024 Paris Masters champion’s side of the net, culminating in a second break which allowed the Italian to serve for the match.
The world No 24 did just that, sealing his progress to the last 16 to love against a dejected Zverev.
“Threat Matrix is also reporting the abuse Jodie received to the platforms, and investigations are under way to identify those responsible. Where the abuse is linked to betting, they will be added to the Bad Actor programme so betting operators can act against their accounts.”
Burrage is one of a number of players to have previously spoken out about the level of abuse received and a failure of the governing bodies and social media companies to tackle it effectively. She spoke out on the abuse after her first-round exit from Wimbledon in 2025.
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Data from Threat Matrix showed female tennis players faced more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media in 2025, with angry gamblers responsible for 42% of verified abuse and 59% of serious abuse.
A report released in July said 66% of serious abusive posts and comments identified by the programme were removed, while 35 accounts linked to 12 individuals were escalated to law enforcement.
