Four times more online abuse of Wimbledon players detected

Nearly four times as much online abuse aimed at players during the first half of Wimbledon was detected compared to the same period in 2024, according to data shared exclusively with the BBC.

There were 1,902 abusive pieces of content sent to players on public-facing accounts and reported to the relevant platforms by the Threat Matrix monitoring system, compared to 511 in the corresponding week of last year's tournament.

Initial data gathered up to the quarter-final stage also suggests that the three most targeted players at the Championships were male, whereas last year two of the top three were female.

After losing in the men's final on Sunday, Carlos Alcaraz said he experiences "cruel" abuse on social media, while women's singles runner-up Amanda Anisimova told BBC Sport she was "scared" to go on her phone after her 6-0 6-0 defeat by Iga Swiatek on Saturday.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club [AELTC] uses the Threat Matrix service, devised by data science firm Signify, which uses AI to monitor public-facing social media accounts.

A team of investigators then manually analyse what is flagged by the system - which covers X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok - and escalate abusive and threatening content.

During Wimbledon it was applied to all players in the men's and women's singles and doubles, the mixed doubles, all players in singles and doubles qualifying, umpires and Wimbledon's official accounts.

Up to the end of the quarter-final stage, 2,916 posts or comments were verified as abusive, threatening, or discriminatory and reported to platforms.

Of these, 132 were assessed as being of "moderate" or "high" threat level - prompting further investigation for potential security or law enforcement action - and "angry gamblers" were responsible for 37% of all detected abuse.

This was from a provisional total of 228,060 posts - both positive and negative - that were picked up by the system because they had been aimed at the monitored handles.

Since last year's Wimbledon, enhancements have been made to Threat Matrix, to capture evolving terms and to address troll accounts that post the same abusive messages multiple times.

The year-on-year increase might reflect these changes in how abusive accounts operate.

British number one Katie Boulter put the issue back in the spotlight when she revealed the "disgusting" volume and nature of social media abuse she received during the French Open, including death threats.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Alcaraz told BBC Sport after his final defeat: "A lot of people have really positive messages to me.

"I just want to ignore all those bad messages that I can receive because it can affect you so much. People can be so cruel."

After her 57-minute loss to Swiatek on Saturday, Anisimova said: "I was definitely scared to open my phone, and I'm sure there's going to be a mixture of feedback there. Definitely it can be hard going on to social media after something like today."

Taylor Fritz, who lost in the semi-finals, said: "If I have a bad loss or something, I don't even want to open my phone with the messages."

Former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic said the messages players get "are not human":

"It's thousands and thousands of messages, win or lose, with really the most horrible things you can imagine."

She added: "[The authorities] tell us to report every bad message. But I mean, I would be doing that for years, so that's not possible."

A spokesperson for the All England Club commented: "The safety and wellbeing of all players at Wimbledon is our top priority and this extends to threats and abuse made online.

"The steps we are taking with Threat Matrix means that perpetrators of online abuse should understand that they will face consequences for their actions."