Death threats for Briton Burrage on WTA Tour return

Britain's Jodie Burrage received death threats and abuse on social media after she was beaten in her first WTA Tour singles match proper for 16 months.

The 27-year-old, ranked 474th in the world, suffered a first-round exit at the Chennai Open after India's Vaishnavi Adkar fought back from a set down to triumph 3-6 6-3 7-5.

Burrage later shared a story on her Instagram account, external with a video scroll of direct messages, including abuse, she was sent following the match.

"Nice welcome back to tour. I remember why I left," said the Londoner in the accompanying message.

Germany's Eva Lys showed solidarity with Burrage, tagging the WTA from her Instagram handle and asking: "When will something be done?"

British number 15 Burrage's last match on the WTA Tour, excluding qualifiers, was in July 2025 when she lost to Catherine McNally in the first round at Wimbledon.

Female tennis players were subjected to more than 12,000 abusive posts and messages on social media last year, according to a report published earlier this year.

Data from the Signify Group's threat matrix service, which uses artificial intelligence-led detection, showed a similar number of abusive posts in 2025 to 2024.

A report from the same group two years ago found that angry gamblers were behind 48% of posts which were deemed to be abusive.

They were responsible for 42% of verified abuse in 2025 and 59% of cases of serious abuse.

In 2025, Britain's Katie Boulter told BBC Sport she had received death threats.

Fellow players called for identity verification to be introduced by social media platforms to try to address the issue.

The WTA's player board has previously condemned the abuse as "unacceptable" and said the impact can be "significant".