Carolina Garcia, a French tennis player who shockingly lost to Mexico’s Renata Zarazua in the U.S. Open on Tuesday, shared a social media post imploring critics to be mindful of their words.
Garcia, the 28th-ranked women’s singles player entering the final Grand Slam of the year, shared a heartfelt message on all her social media platforms on Wednesday, saying she’s been receiving horrible messages following the straight-sets defeat.
"This are some of the messages I received lately after loosing (sic) some matches. Just a few of them. There’s hundreds," Garcia said, while sharing some message in her X post that she’s been getting. "And now, being 30 years old, although they still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not ok.
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"It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate. Maybe you can think that it doesn’t hurt us. But it does. We are humans. And sometimes, when we receive this messages we are already emotionally destroyed after a tough loss. And they can be damaging. Many before me have raised the subject. And still, no progress has been made."
Some of the messages Garcia showed that she receives read, "You are a piece of s---," and, "A clown belongs in the circus."
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Garcia, who has been open about struggles in the past, including her battle with bulimia, brought up how betting on tennis has made these messages worse, among other things.
"Social media platforms don’t prevent it, despite AI being in a very advanced position. Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting. The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people," Garcia wrote.
"Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?"
Garcia understands that these hate messages are likely to still come, but as she mentioned, it’s not acceptable to keep seeing them.
So, as she prepares for her doubles match with her American partner Danielle Collins at the U.S. Open after being knocked out of women’s singles, she is hoping to spread a message of being kind.
"I know those who write these terrible messages won’t change because of this," she wrote. "But maybe you, next time you see a post from an athlete, singer or any other person, that has failed or lost, you will remember that she or he is also a human being, trying his best in life.
"Be kind. Give love. Enjoy life."
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