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The abuse has been coming so constantly, for so long now, Priscilla Hon says she is almost immune to it.

“Ugly ass match fixing ch***.”

The 24-year-old, born in Brisbane to Chinese parents who had immigrated to Australia from Hong Kong, receives so many hateful missives from keyboard warriors, their contents have become like water off a duck’s back.

“F*** ur whole family.”

Hon, a professional tennis player who reached a career-high singles ranking of 118 in the world in October 2019, has been plying her trade around the world for the past decade.

“Your mother is a whore.”

These days, the tennis world barely stops, with weekly tournaments at every level of the sport - all of them open to punters who love to stack multis with short-priced favourites in the early rounds looking for a big return.

“3-1 to 3-6 … I prey (sic) for you die.”

Heaven help a player who has an off day.

“You stupid f***ing pathetic retarded dirty match fixing worthless who*** and useless piece of s***! I hope you die from cancer or get run over by a car you f***ing dumb s***! Go suck d*** for a f***ing living! You suck at tennis b****!”

Welcome to a day in the life of Hon. Racial epithets, sexist remarks, death threats. They come so often, so thick and fast, Hon doesn’t really register them anymore.

When scrolling through her own social media feed, Hon will recognise a hateful reply but try not to fully read and digest it.

Delete, block, repeat.

It’s sometimes just a band aid fix though. Most keyboard warriors post anonymously and if they want to keep up the abuse, they will find a way.

“I mean, you can’t really stop it all because they can easily just make a new account and message off that,” Hon said.

“I just delete them, block them … but it’s not a permanent fix.”

It’s estimated more than 10 per cent of the global sports bookmaker revenue comes from tennis, with the incredible volume of matches and various markets on those making it attractive to punters but also leading to more people losing money and venting at athletes online.

VICTIM BLAMING IS NOT A SOLUTION

You start to wonder why Hon - and others like her - would want to stay on social media given the deluge of disgust.

But that’s outright victim blaming.

Like most social media users, Hon sees the medium as a medium through which to connect.

To family and friends, fans and sponsors.

She may, as she says, be “prone” to copping abuse but she’s not going to let it push her off the internet.

“There’s a lot of people that are supportive too,” she said.

“One way to deal with (the hate) is to maybe turn off comments when I do play a tournament because the thing is, sometimes I can win and I could also get hate messages because I won and (the trolls) would have bet against me.

“It’s almost like you can’t really win either way.

“So it’s good and bad, there’s always supportive people and social media, as a platform for individual players, it’s (often) our only way to promote ourselves or show people who we are apart from just a number on the tennis court.

While tennis can be one of the most rewarding sports on the planet for those who excel, there are hundreds of players grinding away on the secondary tour trying to make a living.

Many athletes are able to monetise their social media following and posting becomes part of their job.

MAKING MONEY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

“A lot of people do get paid through posts and getting friends to sponsor you and the only way to get that money is to have a social media account,” Hon said.

“Having a following is more income to put into your tennis or your sport.”

While the occasional troll is bold enough to use their own profile while spitting bile, most post under fake profiles using a cloak of anonymity to shield them from any repercussions for their jarring, vitriolic messages.

“They’re all usually unknown accounts but sometimes they’re stupid enough to use their personal account,” Hon said, recounting the time a friend searched a poster on the internet, found his girlfriend’s details and informed her of the heinous messages he was sending.

“(If you post anonymously) you can say whatever you want and you won’t ever get punished for it or no one could ever know that they’ve sent these messages.

“They definitely feel like they are protected and they can say whatever they think.”

Hon has pretty much seen it all and it differs from day to day, person to person.

“It’s all very different to be honest. Some are just because I didn’t hold serve for the game, I should have won the set; some race-based; some are just hating on you because they think you suck at your job, basically,” she said.

“It is scary sometimes because you do post where you are all the time and people know where you are playing a tournament as well, hopefully it doesn’t ever get that bad (that someone would act on it).

“But I’m sure if someone bet a really big sum of money and put a lot on the line, they could act out of anger. Who knows?

“I haven’t really felt that threatened yet.”

LET ME MAKE A LIVING

When it all comes down to it, Hon just wants to be able to go out and do her job without facing abuse.

“At the end of the day, this is my job. I’m not hating on that other person’s job what he’s doing every day.

“That’s the thing with tennis, everyone knows exactly what’s happening, they can watch your matches.

“It’s like someone watching what you do in a job every day and grading you. Everyone has a bad day - and so when they bring family into it, it sucks.

“I’m not going to lie, it feels pretty awful.”

But Hon is not about to let the trolls win.

“I’m kind of immune to it because it’s been so many years now. It never feels great to read, especially when you lose and you already feel pretty down and dumps about your match.

“It’s been happening for so many years now, I don’t remember when it wasn’t.”

While a lot of the top players outsource the management of their social media accounts and comment moderating, Hon doesn’t have that option.

But she also enjoys creating content, taking photos and having the opportunity to engage with genuine supporters.

“I like social media just because I like taking photos, I like showing what I’m doing, so that’s why I still (use it).,” she said.

“But if one day I really felt like I was threatened, it might be for someone else to deal with that.”