According to ATP, the world’s leading male tennis player has been covered by more than 162,000 social media posts under a new system powered by artificial intelligence.
AI-powered security tools scanned more than 3.1 million messages in a 12-month period, sent to the world’s top 245 male players, and hid abuse comments in real time.
The ATP responsible for men’s professional tennis has found through its safe sports program that one of the 10 comments on male players is abused, while the rate is as high as 50% on some players’ pages.
“Safe exercise can create a healthier online environment without hateful comments and negative information,” said Dusan Lajovic, a member of the ATP Participant Advisory Committee.
ATP said more than 3,300 comments have been upgraded to take action since the program was launched in July 2024, which has placed the world’s top 250 men’s singles players and doubles top 50.
It identified 68 people who were abused – and submitted 28 referrals to the police.
Despite the large amount of abuse found, safe movements cannot detect every moment of abuse.
Online abuse has been in women’s competition for many years.
The scale of online abuse that Britain’s second-ranked Katie Boulter suffered regularly with BBC Sport in June.
The 29-year-old said the abuse increased after the Grand Slam and the failure.
“It was probably what I personally accepted at the beginning of my career… commenting on your appearance,” Bault said.
“Every time you use your phone, it becomes more obvious.
“I think it’s going to increase in the number of things people say, and it’s going to increase in what people say. I don’t think there’s anything right now.”
Elina Svitolina, formerly ranked third in the world, was targeted at the death threat after defeating Naomi Osaka at the Canadian Open earlier this month.
