"Hope you get cancer": Katie Boulter shares shocking messages after opening up about social media abuse

Britain’s Katie Boulter has opened up about receiving abuse on social media. In recent times, many players from various sports have raised concerns about receiving abuse on social media for various reasons.

Boulter becomes the latest addition to that list of players who have faced difficult times on social media. The 28-year-old, speaking to the BBC, shared messages she received after losing a tiebreak in the first-round encounter at the French Open against Carole Monnet of France. "Hope you get cancer," one message said. "Go to hell, I lost money my mother sent me,” another one said. Boulter went on to win the match with a score of 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.

Recently, another British player, Emma Raducanu, faced an awkward situation during a WTA event in the Middle East when a stalker interrupted her match. Now, Boulter opened up about how vulnerable players are to receiving social media abuse, including death threats. Boulter also shared an interesting fact, revealing that sometimes players receive death threats despite winning the contest.

"At the very start of my career, it's probably something I took very personally... getting comments about the way you look," she told 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 just wonder who the person is that has sent that [cancer message]. 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."