A nightmare for tennis, Pegula: Sports betting is the nightmare of our sport

The world's richest tennis player, American Jessica Pegula, who, along with compatriot Emma Navarro, belongs to the families at the top of the list of world billionaires, is in big trouble after her early and unexpected elimination from Roland Garros.

Pegula, the third seed at Roland Garros, was eliminated in the round of 361 by debutant, XNUMXst ranked tennis player Lois Boisson. However, the super talented Frenchwoman showed after that match that she deserves a much higher rating with her class, but it was too late...

"I am a victim of threats and insults, especially on social media. They even threaten to kill my dog, Tucker. I think the bullies are one-sided and simply out of touch with reality. I had to turn off the message options, but somehow they always manage to find a way to post threats and insults. I wonder if there is any other sport where this is expressed to such an extent? I somehow feel like it only happens in tennis, and it's terrible," the American tennis player pointed out and added:

"Everyone on tour experiences it. It's a nightmare. I've only shown a small part of the threats and there are also everyday messages telling me that my family should get cancer and die. It's completely crazy! I've seen threatening comments in other sports, but I would say that in tennis it's 100 times worse. These comments are always there. It doesn't matter if you win or lose - it all depends on what they bet on. It even goes so far that the mail delivery company noticed and warned me about numerous threats, but I'm used to death threats by now, I get threats all the time," Pegula explained.

She doesn't hide the fact that she's managed to build a defense mechanism, but...

"I've accepted living with it, you can't reason with crazy people. However, I'm not sure that other tennis players can take threats and insults so lightly. When fans demand that we athletes be tougher, stronger..., just remember that you probably don't have someone who sends you death threats every day - to you and your family or wishes you a stillborn baby! And don't tell us: "don't go on social media". That's impossible, because our careers and sponsors are tied to our presence on social media. I get these comments even in private messages and comments...", Pegula told tennis.com.