Twitter and social media enables fans and athletes to interact with one another in ways no one ever would have thought of many years ago and while that can bring a lot of good thins for both sides, there are also negative ones.
According to Yahoo Sports, 22-year-old Canadian professional tennis player Rebecca Marino announced earlier this week that she is retiring from professional tennis after struggling with online abuse from "fans" on social media. Marino spoke to reporters in a conference call and said that she has dealt with anxiety and depression over the past six years, mostly due to the negative comments she received online.
"Social media has also taken its toll on me," Marino said to Yahoo Sports. She also added that many fans would send her tweets saying "go die" and "go burn in hell" and other harsh words from people who bet on her in matches and lost money.
"That's just scratching the surface," she said of the online assaults.
Marino has previously been ranked as high as 38th in the world and has a 150-107 record on the WTA tour. Marino finishes ranked No. 418 in the world and after returning to competition last year she won the singles tournament at the $25,000 Rock Hill Challenger event.
Marino explained that due to the online abuse and anxiety that tennis was not fun for her anymore and that she did not have the desire to play anymore. Marino took a seven-month hiatus from tennis starting in February 2012 and although she said that "social media is actually a really important part of our society and there can be a lot of good that comes out of it," it also was a distraction to her and the negative comments were too much to handle.
"The reason I'm stepping back is just because I don't think that I'm willing to sacrifice my happiness and other parts of my life to tennis," she said.
The head coach of the Canadian national team Sylvain Bruneau said that he was disappointed in Marino's decision but said that he was very supportive of her.
"We would have loved her to play another 10 years or more and compete in the Fed Cup and at the Olympics," Bruneau told the Star. "But if she's not happy playing the game, then we realize she should step away from it."
Marino played in six tournaments this season, one of which was the Australian Open, where she lost in the first round.
"I am opening up to you all about this because I would like to get rid of the stigma attached not only to depression but also to mental illnesses both in the public and in professional sports," she said. "If I can share my story and change one person's outlook or life, I have reached my goal."