“I literally couldn’t see the ball through tears. I could barely breathe.” Emma Raducanu’s haunting words still echo from that nightmarish experience in the Dubai Open, where a man who was in attendance during her match against Karolina Muchova had made her feel uncomfortable. The WTA later revealed he had exhibited “fixated behavior.” While her rocky 2025 form raised eyebrows earlier this season, that terrifying moment overshadowed everything. Fast forward, and just as players prepare for Wimbledon, another British star, Katie Boulter, finds herself battling online abuse. But Raducanu, no stranger to the storm, has stepped up once again, offering raw honesty on how she faced the darkness and kept swinging. Wondering what she said?
In a recent heart-to-heart with BBC Sport, former US Open champion Emma Raducanu was asked whether she had heard about the terrible abuse fellow Brit Katie Boulter has been facing online, and if things have gotten any better for herself. The former US champion’s response was honest and unfiltered. “No, it hasn’t. But I’m glad Katie spoke about it, and I’m glad she, you know, took a stand because it is something that we all go through, we all have to deal with, and some of the different levels and all of that are pretty extreme. And yeah, it’s tough, and it’s very difficult what to do about it.” Her words struck with weight, spoken by someone who’s walked through her fire.
The interviewer didn’t stop there, though. Asked how she handled the emotional aftermath after her incident at Dubai, Raducanu revealed, “Yeah, I try and stay away, try not to read the comments or look at the messages because, you know, it makes you upset… it’s pretty difficult. And it doesn’t matter how many kind of positive comments you read, you always kind of remember the more negative ones. So I try to stay away.”
But what exactly happened to Katie Boulter to spark this raw conversation in the 1st place?
Katie Boulter (Source: Instagram// @katiecboulter)
Boulter, chasing a 3rd straight title at the Nottingham Open, began her campaign with a commanding 6-2, 6-2 win over 44th-ranked Lulu Sun a week ago. Her run, however, came to an end in the quarterfinal. Yet it wasn’t her performance that dominated headlines in the first round; it was the barrage of online hate she exposed.
In a BBC interview, Boulter unveiled a nightmare of abuse hurled her way during and after her French Open loss. One message chillingly read, “Hope you get cancer.” Another said, “Go to hell. I lost money my mother sent me.” A third threatened her family, demanding she buy “candles and a coffin” and promising to desecrate her grandmother’s grave.
After her win on June 17, Boulter even reflected, “I looked on my phone this morning and there were hundreds of messages reacting to it [the interview].” For many, it was a wake-up call, proof that behind the glamor of pro tennis lies a brutal, often invisible war fought in the shadows of social media.
Katie Boulter also reflected on the overwhelming support she received after speaking out. “Every single person was telling me to disregard it and how much they loved me and how much they appreciated me bringing this subject to light. I don’t think people were aware of it. I don’t think people were aware how much it happens to players,” she shared.
The Briton’s courage didn’t go unnoticed; not only did Britain’s top seed stand firmly behind her, but Boulter also found unwavering support from an Aussie ally, who has consistently been by her side, backing her through the storms and standing tall with her through every hurdle in life.
Alex de Minaur supports Katie Boulter for bravely exposing online abuse publicly
The fight against online abuse in tennis is no longer being ignored. Tennis officials have utilized an AI system named Threat Matrix to protect players from online abuse since last year. Developed by ‘Signify Group’, the system monitors online content to detect and filter out abusive messages before they reach athletes. A joint WTA and ITF report released this week revealed the extent of the problem: 458 players experienced direct abuse or threats.
The findings were alarming! According to Signify Group, 40% of overall open-source abuse came from frustrated gamblers. Worse yet, 77% of the direct attacks on player accounts stemmed from a single source: gamblers seeking retribution for their losses.
And amidst the chaos, Katie Boulter’s fiancé, Alex de Minaur, stepped up with praise for her bravery, calling out the issues in public. “It’s good to kind of shine a light on everything that happens not only when you lose,” he said after his latest defeat to Jiri Lehecka at Queen’s Club. “You’re feeling not in the best state emotionally [when you lose], but then you’ve also got to deal with everything that happens behind the scenes with angry gamblers.”
He admitted he hadn’t yet checked his social media, expecting, perhaps, a storm of discontent. “You’re feeling not in the best state emotionally [when you lose], but then you’ve also got to deal with everything that happens behind the scenes with angry gamblers. I haven’t gone on my social media yet, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot of people not too happy with my result today,” he added with brutal honesty.
As tennis reckons with rising abuse, one thing becomes clear: the system needs stronger safeguards. Until then, player mental health must sit front and center, before the noise spirals completely out of hand.
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