“Everybody gets them after a loss,” said Tiafoe, a 25-year-old from Maryland who was scheduled to play in theon Thursday and was a semifinalist at last year’s U.S. Open. “It’s just how society is today. I know how that affects people’s mental health. That’s very real.”
In a bid to try to protect athletes from that sort of abuse at Roland Garros during the 15-day Grand Slam tournament that ends June 11, the French Tennis Federation is paying a company to provide players with software that uses artificial intelligence to block these sorts of negative comments. “We know that there is a lot of cyberbullying,” she said. “We have to address that major issue, so we thought let’s do a test.”
“He lost ... so he was disappointed. Then he checked his phone and was like, ‘Whoa,’” Guerin said, estimating that more than 70% of the comments that athlete received would fall under the heading of “toxicity.”That’s nothing out of the ordinary, according to players. Then there are players such as Tiafoe or the French Open’s 15th-seeded man, Borna Coric, who didn’t sign up for the AI service because they no longer get bothered by the vitriol.