Aussie tennis star Priscilla Hon exposes horrific abuse from trolls

An Aussie tennis ace has revealed the swearing, racism, threats to her family and wishes of disease she gets “every single week” — all from failed gamblers.

Priscilla Hon has copped a torrent of abuse. Picture: Brendan Radke

CONTENT WARNING: This story contains abusive messages

It’s a jarring, vitriolic message from a desperate punter that’s become all too common for Aussie tennis player Priscilla Hon.

Hon has opened up about the putrid messages of hate constantly spewed at athletes by upset gamblers.

The explosion of betting on sports, particularly tennis, has led to problem gamblers taking their frustrations out on losing athletes, with Hon exposing the vile abuse, threats and racist taunts she experiences after matches “every single week”.

Priscilla Hon exposed vile trolls on Twitter.

“I think I’d be speaking for most of us by saying we’re quote prone to it,” she said of the abusive messages experienced by so many players on tour.

“For me, when I see them I don’t feel much, but that doesn’t make it okay. It’s sad that humanity goes down to this level just for losing a bet on a tennis match.”

She then posted on her social media accounts a selection of the “hundreds” of messages she has received from so-called “fans”, mainly punters who have lost money.

“you f***ing worthless piece of garbage,” one message starts.

“please, oh please never play tennis anymore, you SUCK WORTHLESS S***”

It’s the first of five messages from the same poster, who ends: “I sincerely hope you die of cancer you f***ing piece of s***”.

Picture: Twitter

Picture: Twitter

Picture: Twitter

Swearing, threats to her family and wishes of disease for the 24-year-old and her loved ones are prevalent, with the odd racist message thrown in for the born and bred Queenslander, whose parents moved from Hong Kong to Australia two years before she was born.

It should be an incredibly rare and jarring incident rather than a common occurrence but happens so regularly now that Hon, who will represent Australia next month in the Billie Jean Cup, barely bats an eyelid.

And it’s not just the Aussie receiving messages.

Naomi Osaka, whose struggle in the public glare has been well documented, was the most abused player on Twitter last year, a study by sports betting site Pickswise found, following her refusal to take part in press conferences at the French Open.

American player Shelby Rogers’ first thoughts following her US Open loss to then-unheralded Emma Raducanu last year was not about the match but the abuse that would follow on social media.

“I’m going to have nine million death threats and whatnot,” Rogers said in her post-match media conference.

“You could probably go through my profile right now, I’m probably a fat pig and words that I can’t say right now.”

Hon though, has had enough, speaking out to SBS about the issue as well as posting to her social media channels in a bid to expose the issue.

Giants Super Netball captain and England international Jo Harten is another to have called out abuse after she was labelled an “ugly b****” and told to “rot in hell” after her team’s one-goal loss to the West Coast Fever in Perth last year. “Love me or hate me, I compete hard for 60 mins, but no one deserves this,” Harten posted after the game, calling out the abuse.