Jessica Pegula echoes fellow player concerns regarding social media abuse from fans

American tennis star Jessica Pegula has thrown her support behind claims from WTA colleagues Caroline Garcia and Iga Swiatek, who have spoken out about the social media abuse they receive from tennis fans.

Former World No.4 Garcia recently brought awareness to the issue after revealing abusive and derogatory messages from fans over the last week. The Frenchwoman was beaten in the first round of the US Open by Renata Zarazua, and subsequently shared the messages she received in the aftermath.

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Pegula admits to ignoring abusive messages directed towards herself

The Canadian Open champion stated she did not give much though to messages that were aimed directly at herself. However, she did reveal her concern at family members, especially her grandparents, seeing these abusive messages.

“Honestly, I don’t really care because I know they’re all crazy,” said the World No 6. “But I feel bad when my grandparents or my, I don’t know, are on my Instagram and I see horrible comments.
"There’s a girl who does my social media and she was like, ‘You know, you get a lot of really negative messages.’ I laughed because it’s so normal for me. I was like, ‘Oh, no, don’t worry, it’s nothing.' She was really concerned about the fact that I was getting death threats on my Instagram page."

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World No.1 Iga Swiatek also chimed in on the matter, stating she did not feel safe at times due to the comments she received on social media.

"I’m only kind of seeing the messages from my close ones, the ones that I already accepted, but for sure there is a lot of hate,” said the Polish star. “Because I feel like we can’t be on the internet and feel like kind of safe anymore. You have to really be careful about what you’re reading and who you’re following."