LONDON — Angry gamblers were responsible for nearly half of the 12,000 abusive social-media posts aimed at tennis players this year, according to a report published on Thursday (Dec 19).

The study, undertaken by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), Women's Tennis Association (WTA), the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) monitored 2.47 million posts across several platforms using an artificial intelligence (AI) detection system.

Fifteen accounts monitored by the Threat Matrix system were said to have breached criminal thresholds and referred to national law enforcement agencies.

"Protecting our players and the wider tennis family from online abuse is critical to us all," a joint statement from the four organisations said.

"That's why we came together a year ago to put a proactive monitoring service in place for our athletes and officials."

The system, launched at the start of the year, monitored all social media posts to players and officials during Wimbledon and the US Open for harassment, abuse and threat.

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