Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens says the abuse of tennis players is getting “worse” and attempts to thwart it make little difference.
| Dates: 28 May-11 June Venue: Roland Garros, Paris |
| Coverage: Live text and radio commentaries of selected matches across BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website and app |
The technology aims to filter out abuse on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
“It’s been a problem my entire career,” American Stephens said after her first-round win at Roland Garros.
“It has never stopped. If anything, it’s only gotten worse.
“I did hear about the software. I have not used it. I have a lot of key words banned on Instagram and all of these things, but that doesn’t stop someone from just typing in an asterisk or typing it in a different way, which obviously software most of the time doesn’t catch.”
The French Open is the first of the four Grand Slams to introduce such a scheme, with French Tennis Federation CEO Caroline Flaissier saying players’ mental health is a “priority for Roland Garros”.
Stephens showed why she is among the tournament’s most dangerous unseeded players after beating Czech 16th seed and two-time Grand Slam finalist Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-4 in an eye-catching first-round encounter.
Runner-up in Paris in 2018, Stephens was not ranked high enough to be seeded when the draw was made last week but is now 30th, which would have been enough for a seeding.
Her rise up the rankings came amid improving form on clay, with the 30-year-old winning the WTA 125 title in San-Malo earlier in May and reaching the semi-finals in Morocco last week.
Stephens will face Russian Varvara Gracheva in the second round.
Svitolina urges people to ‘focus on helping Ukraine’
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina says she has found “a lot of rubbish” being spoken on the tennis circuit about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since returning from maternity leave.
Former world number three Svitolina, playing in her first major since Russia launched the attack on Ukraine last year, won 6-2 6-2 against Italian 26th seed Martina Trevisan on her Grand Slam comeback at Roland Garros.
On Sunday, Ukrainian player Marta Kostyuk was booed in Paris for not shaking the hand of Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, whose country has supported Russia’s war.
Russian and Belarusian players have continued to compete on the ATP and WTA tours as neutral athletes, without a flag, since the invasion in February 2022.
Svitolina urged people to “focus on helping Ukrainians” in her post-match media conference.
“We are missing the main point that people now at this time, they need help as never before,” she said.
Becoming increasingly upset as she spoke, the 28-year-old added: “The main point is to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are fighting for Ukraine.
“The kids, they’re losing their parents, they’re losing parts of their body.
“We are missing the main point of all of that and talking, talking, talking about nothing. Empty, completely empty words. It is not helping anything.”
Svitolina won her 17th WTA title – and first since becoming a mother – in Strasbourg on Saturday and will donate her prize money from the event to help Ukrainian children.
Asked if she would donate her Roland Garros winnings, she said: “I will see what are the possibilities and what are the needs of the cities.
“For example, in Odessa, my hometown, or in Kharkiv or Kyiv, we will see what are the urgent needs, and I’ll donate this money there.”
What else happened in the women’s draw on day two?
Stephens’ US compatriot Madison Keys advanced to the second round with a 6-1 3-6 6-1 win against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, while 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia beat Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2 6-2.
There was a shock defeat for 12th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland as she lost 6-3 2-6 6-4 to Russian lucky loser Elina Avanesyan.
French fifth seed Caroline Garcia survived a second-set wobble to beat China’s Wang Xiyu 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4, while 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil thrashed Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-0 6-1.
Two-time Wimbledon champion and 10th seed Petra Kvitova also exited the draw, losing 6-3 6-4 to Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, and Russian 11th seed Veronika Kudermetova was beaten 6-3 6-1 by Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
However, Latvia’s 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko beat Czech Tereza Martincova 6-3 7-5 to set up a meeting with American Peyton Stearns.
