WTA offers Burrage reporting channel and moderation after Chennai abuse

The WTA has offered Jodie Burrage a private channel for reporting abusive messages and comment moderation after she received death threats following her Chennai Open defeat. The measures, reported by Second Serve Aces, come after the British player publicly shared messages sent to her Instagram account following Tuesday's first-round loss to India's Vaishnavi Adkar.

Watch the highlights:

Investigations to identify those responsible are under way, the WTA said, according to PA's report in the Guardian. Burrage had posted a recording showing abusive messages after the match, AP reported. Many appeared to come from people unhappy about losing bets, although that does not establish the identity or motivation of every sender.

The match marked Burrage's first WTA Tour singles main-draw appearance in 16 months. The Indian Express reported that the 27-year-old won the opening set and led 5-3 in the decider before Adkar completed a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory. The contest lasted two hours and 47 minutes, with Burrage receiving medical attention late in the match.

Burrage had previously raised the problem after her first-round Wimbledon exit in July 2025. According to the Indian Express, she said at the time that the abuse made her avoid looking at her phone. She also argued that linking social-media accounts to identification would make users more accountable for what they wrote, rather than allowing them to send abuse anonymously.

The latest incident comes against a broader pattern documented by tennis's monitoring service. Geo Super reported that Threat Matrix data recorded more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages directed at female players in 2025, at a level similar to 2024. Angry gamblers accounted for 42% of verified abuse and 59% of cases classified as serious abuse in the 2025 figures.

AP separately reported that a WTA review released in July said 66% of serious abusive posts or comments had been removed and 35 accounts escalated to law enforcement. Those figures concern the wider monitoring programme, not the messages Burrage received in Chennai. Her case now involves an offer of direct reporting and moderation support after she publicly documented the abuse.