Defending US Open champion Coco Gauff says she blocks cyberbullies on social media amid player concern

Defending U.S. Open Champion Coco Gauff has a simple fix to the seemingly overwhelming issue of cyberbullying: the block button. 

After her second-round victory over Tatjana Maria Wednesday, Gauff was asked about the topic after French tennis player Caroline Garcia posted a lengthy message on social media about bullying athletes face and the impact it has on their mental health. 

She included several "hate" messages she received. 

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"[These] are some of the messages I received lately after losing some matches. Just a few of them," Garcia wrote on X. "There’s hundreds. 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.

"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. 

Gauff said she was briefed about the post and agreed with her point. 

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"It's tough because you hear a lot of nasty things, and people talk about your appearance, your family's appearance, and all these things," Gauff said. "If you are already struggling with your own mental issues and, on top of that, you have people digging deeper, it is tough."

Gauff admitted to limiting her time on social media, adding she typically avoids X. But her best tool? Blocking the noise, although the method isn’t foolproof. 

"I personally just block. I'm someone, I will literally spend 30 minutes blocking all the people. I really don't care," she said.  "I'm entitled not to read negative things about myself. Just as you're entitled to write that, I'm entitled to block it. It is unfortunate. Obviously, the block can only do so much."

Guaff is hopeful advances in technology will be the answer. 

The French Open partnered in 2022 with a company that uses artificial intelligence to filter players' social media accounts. And the groups that run the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, the women's tour and the lower-level ITF Tour announced in December they were starting a service to monitor for "abusive and threatening content" on X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.

"Hopefully the Al stuff can help in the future," Gauff said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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