After a wave of vile messages following her latest defeat, Britain's Jodie Burrage says the abuse has become so routine that it no longer frightens her.
Britain's Jodie Burrage has opened up about the torrent of online abuse that landed in her inbox after her latest loss, and her message is as sobering as it is blunt: she isn't surprised anymore.
Burrage says she doesn't fear for her physical safety when the hateful messages roll in. The reason is troubling in itself. Players have been exposed to this kind of treatment so often that it has become part of the background noise of life on tour.
That normalisation is the real story. When an elite athlete shrugs off targeted abuse as an expected cost of competing, it shows how deeply the problem has taken root in modern tennis. Defeats can trigger a flood of anonymous vitriol within minutes, delivered straight to the phones of players who are still processing the result.
Burrage's openness adds another voice to the growing conversation about protecting athletes on social media. Her comments will keep pressure on the sport and the platforms to ask whether living with abuse should ever be accepted as simply part of the job.
