Ukrainian star Elina Svitolina exposed abusive messages from bettors after her Canadian Open 2025 quarterfinal loss to Naomi Osaka. As a mother, she condemned the shameful hate and shed light on the growing issue of online abuse in tennis.
Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina revealed abusive and horrific messages by bettors targeting her after a quarterfinal defeat to Naomi Osaka at the Canadian Open 2025 on Wednesday, August 6.
Elina Svitolina, wife of French tennis star Gael Monfil, suffered two straight set defeat, 6-2, 6-2, at the hands of Naomi Osaka, ending her fine run of form at the Canadian Open, where she did not lose a single set in the first three rounds of the tournament. Given her impressive performance in the Canadian Open, Svitolina’s defeat against Osaka was a shock.
Interestingly, a few people bet on the Ukrainian tennis star to win the quarterfinal and advance to the semifinal of the tournament, as she was seen as a favourite due to her dominant run. However, Svitolina’s unexpected loss to Naomi Osaka led to a barrage of abusive messages from frustrated bettors, as her defeat reportedly caused them financial loss.
‘I’m a mum before I’m an athlete’
Following her quarterfinal defeat to Naomi Osaka at the Canadian Open, Elina Svitolina revealed abusive messages from the people who bet on her victory.
Messages like ‘Fixer player, ‘You f****** die tonight’, ‘Corrupt b****’, and ‘Dumb b*****’, were all thrown at were all thrown at her through social media, especially Instagram, just because they lost the bet on her victory in the quarterfinal.
The Ukrainian tennis star revealed those abusive messages on her Instagram stories and called out the bettors for flooding her inbox with hate and threats.
“To all the bettors: I’m a mum before I’m an athlete. The way you talk to women — to mothers—is SHAMEFUL. If your mothers saw your messages, they’d be disgusted,” she wrote.
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Elina Svitolina gave birth to a baby girl, Skai Monfils, in October 2022, and made a comeback to competitive tennis through the clay-court event 500 Charleston Open in April 2023. Just two months later, Svitolina won her first title as a mother in Strasbourg.
Svitolina is one of the many mothers who are still active on the tour, including her quarterfinal opponent, Naomi Osaka, Belinda Bencic, Victoria Azarenka, Tatjana Maria, Anastasija Sevastova, and others.
Svitolina incident was not the first time
Elina Svitolina’s incident, where he faced a barrage of abuse from the bettors, was not the first time a professional tennis player has been subjected to such harassment.
Earlier this year, British player Katie Boulter received abuse and threats from the bettors following her second-round defeat to Madison Keys at the French Open 2025.
The bettors targeted her as well as her family with threats and abuses. The Women’s Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation called on the betting companies to do more to restrict the online abuses targeting tennis players.
As per the WTA and ITF Report, 458 tennis players received over 8,000 abusive messages and posts on social media, with 40% coming from angry people who lost a bet in 2024.