{"id":421807,"date":"2026-01-18T19:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421807\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T19:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T19:48:14","slug":"australian-tennis-player-destanee-aiava-exposes-vile-online-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/421807\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian tennis player Destanee Aiava exposes vile online abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis<\/a> player Destanee Aiava has exposed in a raw video message online abuse she’s described as “twisted”, “disgusting” and “disrespectful”.<\/p>\n

Aiava, 25, took to Instagram before the start of the Australian Open<\/a> main draw to call out trolls who had attacked her.<\/p>\n

One of the messages Aiava showed said she wasn’t good at tennis and suggested she instead take up “competitive eating”.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE: Australian Open day one coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Not going to survive’: Ponting’s blunt call on Aussie opener<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: City stunned in shock loss after Man U’s coaching change<\/a><\/p>\n

“Usually I block people straight away whenever I get a comment like this or any accounts that do this,” said Aiava, who will compete in doubles but not singles at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

“And I’m usually encouraged not to bite back or say anything \u2014 just block.<\/p>\n

“But today I didn’t, purely because I wanted to see how far this person would go.”<\/p>\n

\"NEW<\/p>\n

Destanee Aiava of Australia.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Some people have a “really twisted understanding” of what an opinion is, Aiava said.<\/p>\n

“An opinion would be someone telling me maybe I can bend my legs more on my serve or someone prefers watching singles more than they like watching doubles,” said the world No.237.<\/p>\n

“An opinion can be critical, but it can also be respectful, which is exactly what this person and many others aren’t. Constantly commenting on someone’s social media, saying ‘You’re a big back, you can’t play tennis, you’re fat, yada, yada, yada’ \u2014 that’s just straight up bullying.<\/p>\n

“It is disgusting, disrespectful and I genuinely don’t know why people like this waste their time and energy on athletes who are just literally trying their f—ing best.”<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open live & free on the 9Network & 9Now<\/a>. Stan Sport<\/a> is the only place to watch every match ad-free, live & on demand with centre court in 4K<\/p>\n

Aiava made the heartbreaking reveal in 2022 that she had tried to take her own life shortly before her 22nd birthday.<\/p>\n

Three strangers intervened, saving Aiava in her darkest moment.<\/p>\n

Later in 2022, the Melbourne product was experiencing panic attacks before matches at a tournament in Darwin.<\/p>\n

She sought out professional help and was subsequently diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.<\/p>\n

It’s a mental health condition that affects a person’s ability to regulate their emotions.<\/p>\n

“It’s mainly from childhood trauma, so things in your brain develop poorly as a child,” Aiava told The Age last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One troll mocked her about her borderline personality disorder over the weekend, writing: “I think your BPD is acting up again.”<\/p>\n

Aiava had a message for her supporters.<\/p>\n

“thank you everyone for being so supportive and kind,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“i [sic] will never shut up about these disgusting imbeciles.”<\/p>\n

Aiava fell short of a main-draw singles entry into this year’s Australian Open when she lost in the first round of qualifying, but will partner fellow Australian Maddison Inglis in doubles.<\/p>\n

Aiava and Inglis will take on Aldila Sutjiadi and Giuliana Olmos, who hail from Indonesia and Mexico respectively, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via lifeline.org.au<\/a>. In an emergency, call 000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian tennis player Destanee Aiava has exposed in a raw video message online abuse she’s described as “twisted”,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-421807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}