Britain's Jodie Burrage experienced a hostile return to the WTA Tour, receiving death threats and online abuse after her first singles match in 16 months. The 27-year-old, ranked 474th globally, was defeated in the first round of the Chennai Open by India's Vaishnavi Adkar.
Following the match, Burrage posted a video compilation of abusive direct messages on her Instagram account, accompanying it with the message, "Nice welcome back to tour. I remember why I left." Germany's Eva Lys expressed solidarity with Burrage, tagging the WTA on Instagram and questioning when action would be taken to address such harassment.
Burrage's last WTA Tour singles match, excluding qualifying rounds, was in July 2025. A report released earlier this year indicated that female tennis players were subjected to over 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media in the previous year. Data from the Signify Group's threat matrix service, which utilizes AI detection, showed a comparable number of abusive posts in 2024 and 2025. A prior report from the same group found that angry gamblers were responsible for 48% of abusive posts deemed to be offensive and accounted for 42% of verified abuse and 59% of serious abuse cases in 2025.
This incident echoes similar experiences within the sport. In 2025, British player Katie Boulter publicly shared that she had received death threats. Fellow players have advocated for identity verification on social media platforms as a potential measure to combat online abuse. The WTA's player board has previously denounced such abuse as "unacceptable" and acknowledged its significant impact on athletes.