WTA supports Jodie Burrage after death threats following Chennai defeat

Jodie Burrage is receiving support from WTA staff in Chennai after being sent death threats following her singles defeat, BBC Sport reported on Wednesday. The British player, 27, had been playing her first WTA Tour singles main-draw match in 16 months.

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Burrage lost 3-6 6-3 7-5 to India's Vaishnavi Adkar on Tuesday and subsequently shared abusive direct messages on Instagram. She tagged the WTA and asked when action would be taken. On Wednesday, she and American partner Robin Montgomery won their last-16 doubles match at the Chennai Open.

The WTA told the BBC that its staff in Chennai, player welfare personnel and Threat Matrix team were supporting Burrage. It also offered a private route for reporting abusive direct messages and moderation to hide abusive comments on public channels before she encounters them. Germany's Eva Lys was among the players who expressed solidarity with Burrage.

The incident comes after the WTA and World Tennis published their second annual online-abuse report in July. Using Signify Group's Threat Matrix data, that report examined more than 1.2 million posts and comments during 2025. More than 12,000 were classified as abusive, including 3,726 serious cases involving categories such as violent threats, sexual abuse and racism. Those figures describe the wider programme, not messages sent specifically to Burrage.

The governing bodies reported that 66% of serious abusive posts or comments had been removed. They also referred 35 accounts connected to 12 individuals to law enforcement. Investigations fully or partly identified 68 abusive accounts, compared with 39 in 2024. The report said 89% of accounts responsible for serious abuse in 2024 did not reappear in 2025.

Gambling-related abuse remained prominent in the findings: angry gamblers accounted for 42% of verified abuse and 59% of serious abuse during 2025. The WTA and World Tennis called for more betting operators to take action against offenders. They also said further progress depended on cooperation between social media platforms, law enforcement, sports governing bodies and the gambling industry.