"When will something be done?" - British tennis player exposes wave of online abuse directed to her after defeat

Sports professionals are very vulnerable to a huge amount of online hate and criticism. This is rife in tennis, with British player Jodie Burrage the latest WTA talent to come out and call this out as she showcased a lot of the messages and even death threats that she has received following an early defeat at the Chennai Open.

The 27-year-old was making her first WTA main draw appearance since Wimbledon in 2025 and would take on Indian wildcard Vaishnavi Adkar in her opening match.

Burrage was coming off a high after reaching the semi-finals of an ITF W100 event in Wrexham, losing to eventual champion 17-year-old Hannah Klugman. She would make the trip straight back to Asia as she looked to capitalise on this rare opportunity to impress back on the WTA Tour.

A former WTA Tour finalist in Nottingham, Burrage's career has been dominated by injuries, halting any progress she has been able to make.

The former World No.85 won the first set in Chennai but was pegged back with a third set on the way. It seemed that Burrage would see it out for a triumphant win, overturning an early break deficit as she won four games on the spin to put her 5-3 ahead.

She failed to serve it out as Adkar produced a four-game burst, successfully serving it out to advance. Burrage was starting to struggle with the humidity, receiving a medical timeout ahead of her opponent serving the match out. She had her vitals checked before losing the final game to love.

The Indian was very happy with the win. "I am really happy. I knew it was going to be a tough match and that I had to fight for every point," she said afterwards. "I knew I wasn't going to get any free points because she is a good player who has been in the top 100. I just tried to give my all on every point, and I think it worked pretty well for me."

It was a hugely disappointing ending for Burrage, but that would not be the thing on her mind later on in the day. She posted on her Instagram story a series of messages that were directed at her. These were abusive and very traumatic for the Brit as these comments surfaced due to the defeat.

"Nice welcome back to tour. I remember why I left," she wrote in companion to the messages. At the bottom, another statement read: "When will something be done?"

This continues to be a huge problem in tennis, and the source of a lot of it is clear. Speaking back in July 2025, Burrage singled out gambling and social media companies to do more against this wave of online abuse, with sports betting having a huge influence on this.

"I think it's very simple to have someone's ID connected to their account and that would, I think, quickly stop what people write and make them more accountable," Burrage said.

"I'm just guessing that they're gamblers; some of them say, 'You've lost me this amount of money' or whatever, so some of them are. I don't know, that's the only explanation I've got otherwise they are just very bad people. But yes, it's tough and today I'm trying not to look at my phone. It's not easy to deal with, but I do think there could be more being done."

Back in 2024, A report from the Women's Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation revealed that 458 players were direct targets of abuse. This is a stark figure and a reality check that this problem is getting out of control with not enough being done to halt it.