Death Threats Demanding Players Throw Matches Raise Fears of WTA Data Breach

• Death threats demanded players deliberately lose matches during professional tournaments.
• Messages included gun images and detailed personal information about players’ families.
  
• Incidents highlight rising gambling abuse and match-fixing risks in tennis.

A series of disturbing death threats sent to women’s tennis players demanding they throw matches could point to a personal data breach within the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

Hungarian Panna Udvardy, 27, the world No. 95, said in an Instagram post Friday she received a message from an unknown number with a UK dialing code telling her to lose her WTA 125 quarterfinal match against Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina in Antalya, Turkey.

If she did not, the sender claimed her family would be harmed.

‘Ready for War’

“We have two groups near Hungary ready for war, if necessary,” warned the sender.

They said they knew where my family lives, what cars they drive and that they had their phone numbers,” Udvardy said. “They even sent photos of my family members and a picture of a gun. It was honestly very scary to receive something like this.”

Udvardy, who ultimately lost the match 7-6 (7-3) 7-5, was the second women’s tennis player last week to report receiving a threat. Italian player Lucrezia Stefanini, the world No. 138, described a similar experience ahead of a loss in qualifying for the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Again, she was shown an image of a gun and her family were threatened.

Udvardy said that when she reported the threat to the WTA, she was told other players had also come forward and the organization was investigating a possible data breach. The WTA later emailed players saying there had been no confirmed breach and that the FBI was investigating the source of the messages.

Women Tennis Players Targeted

The explosion of sports betting in recent years has led to an increase in athlete abuse on social media, with female tennis players particularly targeted, according to recent studies.

Meanwhile, tennis has long had a problem with match-fixing, especially at its lower levels, where the poor prize money on offer and the expense of traveling the circuit make some players vulnerable to approaches from betting syndicates offering money for game manipulation.

But explicit death threats tied to demands to lose a match — and accompanied by apparent personal information about players’ families — are rare and troubling.

‘Not Normal’

“I want to say something clearly: this is not normal,” Udvardy told her social media followers. “Even as athletes or public figures, it’s not acceptable to receive threats against our families, especially not on our private phone numbers and alongside disturbing images. We should not normalize abuse like this in sport.

“No player should have to deal with something like this.”