LONDON -- Madison Keys was the US Open runner-up last year and a French Open semifinalist last month, is considered a contender at Wimbledon right now and, still, total strangers insult her, sometimes with menacing or obscene language, on a regular basis via social media.
"Try to find another job,'' read one message sent to the American via Twitter after she lost at the Australian Open. Another called her "the most overrated player in all of tennis.'' Those are just a couple of examples that happen to be suitable for print. Often, as Keys says, "It's really disgusting, horrible things."
She is hardly alone. Professional tennis players of every sort are greeted by online harassment. And frequently, players say, complaints come from disgruntled gamblers. To help deal with this phenomenon, this year the ATP has set up a partnership with a company that deals with risk assessment and management, and the WTA is close to finalizing a deal with the same group, Theseus, The Associated Press has learned.
"Today, I just looked briefly; I had two or three messages, like: 'How can you lose to someone ranked lower than you?' 'You should die.' 'Quit tennis.' Stuff like that,'' Peter Polansky, a Canadian ranked 110th, said after his first-round exit at the All England Club on Monday. "It's guys who bet money on you and lost. ... Just the things they say are, like, 'Wow.' It's tough to step in and stop all that. I don't think it's preventable.''
Now players can alert London-based Theseus, which also works with athletes in other sports and entertainment figures, to troubling messages and be told whether the item simply can be ignored or is serious enough to warrant alerting law enforcement. Neither the ATP nor Theseus would disclose how many tennis players have taken advantage of the new relationship or how often police or other authorities have been contacted.
"This is an issue that isn't going to go away,'' ATP spokesman Simon Higson wrote in an email, "and it is important that our players are able to understand what they are receiving, why, how to respond and what actions they are advised to take.''
Stalking and player safety are real concerns in a sport shaken by the stabbing of International Tennis Hall of Famer Monica Seles during a tournament 25 years ago.
Another factor is gambling's prominence. Among the recommendations in April from a panel that reviewed corruption in tennis: There should be more robust measures to deal with the online abuse of players. Another suggestion was that the International Tennis Federation stop selling official live scoring data to betting companies, which creates an environment that can encourages attempts at match-fixing.