Creeps send female tennis pros photos of guns, threaten families if they doesnt lose matches, terrifying messages reveal
A pair of women’s tennis players revealed recent separate threatening messages that included a picture of a gun and called for harm against their respective families if they did not lose their upcoming matches.Italian Lucrezia Stefanini, the World No.138, detailed earlier this week the threat she received prior to a match in the Indian Wells Open in California, while Hungarian Panna Udvardy, the World No.
95, detailed the harassing message sent to her before a match in the Antalya WTA 125 in Turkey.Stefanini, 37, posted a video to Instagram on Tuesday narrating the harrowing experience.“I received a WhatsApp message in which I was threatened over winning yesterday’s match.They threatened me and my family and named my parents, the place where I was born, and they sent me a photo of a gun,” Stefanini said in Italian, according to the Associated Press.Stefanini ultimately lost, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, in the qualifying round Monday to Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva.“I’m making this video and explaining what happened because I don’t think it’s right to put me under this pressure and unease before a match,” she said in her video, per the AP.
“I immediately alerted the WTA, which provided me with more security.… The entire tournament mobilized to make me feel safe.“Despite it all, I fought until the end to try and win my match, because I can’t permit these people to intimidate me.”Udvardy, 27, posted screenshots early Friday morning of the written threats, which included images of family members, plus the gun, which was being held by an unseen individual.She said the messages came the previous day around midnight from an unknown number via WhatsApp.“The person told me that if I didn’t lose my match today, they would harm members of my family.
They said they knew where my family lives, what cars they drive and that they had their phone numbers.They even sent photos of my family members and a picture of a gun,” Udvardy wrote on Instagram.“It was...