The ATP uncovers the dimension of harassment of tennis players

The Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) prevented players and fans from receiving more than 234,000 offensive comments during the past year on the social media channels of the men’s professional circuit and on the accounts of the tennis players themselves.

Through the project called ATP Safe Sportwhich was launched in 2024 in order to protect the well-being of players, more than 3.7 million comments on different social networks were analyzed and more than 284,000 offensive messages were identified, of which 82 percent were deleted in real time before they reached their recipients.

The detected cases were transferred to police, judicial and government authorities at the local, national and international level in order to identify the aggressors and have measures taken against them to eradicate digital violence, the governing body reports on its website.

“The well-being of the players is a fundamental pillar of the ATP’s security efforts. Preventing more than 234,000 offensive comments from arriving is a reflection of the tangible impact that the program has every day. There is no place for digital violence in tennis,” emphasizes ATP Security Director Andrew Azzopardi.

For the ATP, last year’s results reflect “the large scale of this challenge faced by professional tennis players on the Internet,” since more than 85 percent of those who received interactions on social networks were exposed to offensive messages originating from more than 100,000 accounts.

ATP Safe Sport, developed with various technological platforms, combines message moderation using artificial intelligence tools and evaluates possible threats in collaboration with law enforcement authorities.

In its activity during 2025, more than 1,800 comments were sent for specialist analysis, as well as 690 automatic threat alerts.

“We will continue to invest in technology, expertise and collaborations to protect players, and we will continue to work with authorities to hold those who commit these acts accountable,” adds Azzopardi.