American tennis star Jessica Pegula shared a taste of the heinous comments she’s received on social media following her shocking exit from the French Open in a series of Instagram Stories she posted on her account on Wednesday.
Pegula, daughter of billionaire Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula and ranked No. 3 in the world in tennis, called out the bettors she said sent her the disturbing and abusive comments, which ranged from wishing her firstborn child be a stillbirth to wishing death to her.
Pegula lost the French Open in the fourth round to wild card Lois Boisson, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“These [bettors] are insane and delusional,” Pegula wrote on her Instagram Story. “And I don’t allow dms and try to remember when to shut my comments off during tournament weeks but they always find a way to my timeline. This stuff has never really bothered me much but does any other sport deal with this to our level? I’d love to know because it seems to be [predominantly] tennis?? It’s so disturbing.”
Before the comment, Pegula shared a handful of images highlighting the bonkers messages she’s received from people on her page.
In one image, it showed several comments that included calling her a “trash can” and another that told her to “just quit playing tennis and enjoy your father’s money! You are literally the most useless top 10 player ever.”
Warning: disturbing images
Another commenter wrote under an Instagram post about the passing of Pegula’s dog, Tucker, that she “sold” a match “on purpose.”
“Can’t wait until Karma spends the block back on you. Hopefully your first born child will be a still birth,” one disturbed comment read.
Another person made a crass comment about her deceased dog, telling Pegula, “Tucker is better off without this loser.”
A separate image showed a user posting a picture of a playing card that read “You Die” on it.
“Every person on tour deals with it. It’s so bad. Those are just really small snippets. I get told my family should get cancer and die from people on here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy,” she wrote.
“I’ve seen stories of comments/threats/stalking making headlines in other sports… well news flash I can guarantee it’s 100 times worse. These comments are nonstop for us. Win or lose – it’s whatever they bet on.”
Sadly, the abuse has become such a part of the tennis star’s life that when the NHL had alerted her to threats to her, she was barely phased by them.
“My response was ‘oh that’s it? I get those all the time’ that is so messed up that that is my response. Normalizing death threats!” she added.
Threats to athletes have become an increasingly visible topic recently, and Houston Police revealed earlier this week that an overseas sports bettor had been the culprit of death threats made toward Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and his family.
