WTA backs Jodie Burrage after death threats and online abuse
Burrage shared abusive Instagram messages after her Chennai Open loss to India's Vaishnavi Adkar, and the tour body said staff in Chennai were supporting her.
The WTA has stepped up support for Britain's Jodie Burrage, who received death threats and online abuse after her Chennai loss on Tuesday, Turkey's state-run news agency Anadolu Agency reported.
Burrage posted screenshots of intimidating messages sent to her Instagram account after she lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to India's Vaishnavi Adkar.
The 27-year-old wrote that she remembered "why I left" the tour, alongside the messages.
The match was her first WTA Tour singles main-draw appearance in 16 months, while Adkar's win was the Indian player's first at WTA level.
The WTA said staff at the Chennai tournament were helping Burrage alongside its player welfare and Threat Matrix teams.
The tour body has also given her a private channel for reporting abusive direct messages, along with a moderation service that hides offensive public comments before players see them.
The abusive messages have been reported to the relevant social media platforms, and investigations are under way to identify the account holders.
Accounts linked to gambling-related abuse could be referred to the Bad Actor program, which lets betting operators act against users connected to them, the WTA said.
The WTA told BBC Sport that protecting players from online threats is "a key priority" for the organization.
The Threat Matrix system, launched with other tennis organizations in 2023, combines artificial intelligence with human analysis to monitor public posts on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
A WTA report released in July said the program secured the removal of 66% of serious abusive posts and comments identified during 2025, and 35 accounts were escalated to law enforcement.
Burrage had previously spoke out about online abuse after her first-round loss at Wimbledon in 2025, when she said players often received hostile messages from gamblers blaming them for lost money.
Germany's Eva Lys publicly called for further action against online abuse after Burrage's latest post, and other players also expressed support.
