Naomi Osaka listed as most abused player of the last 12 months, Djokovic second after deportation

A recent study showed that Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka was the recipient of the most abusive tweets over the past 12 months, while Novak Djokovic came in second after his deportation from Australia.

The betting website Pickswise conducted a study with data collected from January 2021 to December 2021, which monitored tweets aimed at tennis players that contained the use of words, phrases and tags that were recognized as abusive.

A total of approximately 100,000 tweets were collected, collated and analyzed. Pickswise aimed to highlight the levels of online abuse directed at tennis players in an attempt to get social media companies to combat online trolls and abuse.

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka topped the list with a total of 32,415 abusive tweets directed at her. This comes after she announced she wouldn’t participate in French Open press conferences, before completely withdrawing from both the French Open and Wimbledon, Osaka later revealed that she had been suffering periods of depression and anxiety.

All of the top five received more than 10,000 abusive tweets. Serena Williams, Andy Murray Emma Raducanu and Novak Djokovic form the rest of the top five. Whilst outside of the initial date range, 20-time Slam champion Djokovic received an additional 7,354 abusive tweets following his deportation and anti-vaccination stance. With these figures included, Djokovic would move up to second on the list.

Below is a list of the players who make up the Top 20.

1. Naomi Osaka 32, 415 tweets

2. Serena Williams  18,118 tweets

3. Andy Murray  11,732 tweets

4. Emma Raducanu  10,094 tweets

5. Novak Djokovic  8,439 tweets  *15,793 after Australian Open debacle

6. Roger Federer  4,261 tweets

7. Stefanos Tsitsipas  4,084 tweets

8. Rafael Nadal  3,588 tweets

9. Alexander Zverev  3,454 tweets

10. Simona Halep  3,181 tweets

11. Nick Kyrgios  3,064 tweets

12. Daniil Medvedev  2,726 tweets

13. Ashleigh Barty  2,596 tweets

14. Genie Bouchard  1,716 tweets

15. Maria Sharapova  1,553 tweets

16. Sloane Stephens  1,549 tweets

17. Venus Williams  1,446 tweets

18. Dominic Thiem  1,381 tweets

19. Andrey Rublev  1,151 tweets

20. Sania Mirza  1,010 tweets