"All the players on the circuit are faced with this," Pegula shares the hate messages she received after her elimination at Roland-Garros
Jessica Pegula experienced a major disappointment at Roland-Garros. The American, world number 3, was defeated in the fourth round of the Parisian Grand Slam by the French revelation Loïs Boisson, despite having won the first set (3-6, 6-4, 6-4).
A few days after her elimination, the finalist of the last US Open posted a message on her Instagram story where she compiled some hate messages from bettors who lost money because of her defeat.
"These bettors are simply crazy and delusional. I don't allow private messages and try to remember to disable comments during tournaments, but they always find a way into my feed.
I had never really worried more than that, but do other sports have to deal with what we experience at our level? I wish I had the answer, because I feel like this mostly concerns tennis.
It's disturbing. All the players on the circuit are faced with this. It's terrible. And what I'm showing is just a small part. Here, people regularly write to me that my family members should have cancer and die. It's just crazy.
Once again, I'm glad that none of this has gotten to my head more than it has, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others or that it's normal to receive such messages.
And don't say, 'Stay away from social media,' because our entire careers and sponsors are tied to our presence on social networks. And that's despite the fact that I've disabled private messages and comments," Pegula wrote on the social network in the past few hours.
Boisson, Lois
Pegula, Jessica