{"id":485344,"date":"2026-02-19T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485344\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:10:12","slug":"tennis-star-opens-up-on-heartbreaking-racist-insults-after-announcing-retirement-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485344\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star opens up on heartbreaking racist insults after announcing retirement | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Destanee Aiava has shed light on the cruel insults she has received throughout her tennis career after announcing her decision to step away from the sport<\/a>, aged 25. The former world No. 147 shared the news in a strong statement on social media over the weekend, branding tennis her \u201ctoxic boyfriend\u201d in the moving post.<\/p>\n

The Samoan-Australian tennis star added: \u201cF*** you to a sport that hides behind so-called class and gentlemanly values. Behind the white outfits and traditions is a culture that’s racist, misogynistic, homophobic and hostile to anyone who doesn’t fit the mould.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she prepares to retire on her own terms, Aiava has given more of an insight into the heartbreaking abuse and racism she experienced throughout her career, telling Clay<\/a> that she has been \u201ccalled a \u2018monkey\u2019 and \u2018transgender\u2019\u201d on the court.<\/p>\n

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Aiava, who paid tribute to the Pacific Islander community in her retirement post, also said: \u201cBeing a woman of colour in this sport that\u2019s predominantly white, it\u2019s been a big struggle from the get-go. There\u2019s not been one time where I felt like I belonged in this sport because of my colour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be harder for us and that\u2019s just the reality. Even if I wasn\u2019t a woman, it\u2019s still going to be harder if I was Brown or Asian or Black. From the online abuse and people in the stands during my matches heckling me there\u2019s so many instances that equated to my retirement post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten comments online from people calling me \u2018fat,\u2019 calling me a \u2018man.\u2019 Even seeing gay tennis players and how they\u2019re treated, it\u2019s such an important thing for me to also advocate for them because I see firsthand how they\u2019ve been treated in tennis. I really just didn\u2019t want to speak for myself. I wanted to speak for everyone else who had or who has had a very similar experience to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing her own experiences with racism on the court, the 25-year-old added: \u201cWhen I was little, there were crazy tennis parents at the tournaments and they would not be too shy to express how they felt out loud by calling me a \u2018man\u2019 or a \u2018monkey\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Aiava didn\u2019t experience the same abuse in the locker rooms, she has still called out the \u201chostile\u201d environment on tour. \u201cThey all just talk behind each other\u2019s backs. That\u2019s the reason why it creates a hostile environment because everyone just says it behind your back and then gives a fake smile when you\u2019re passing each other. I\u2019m very big on energy and for the most part, whenever I was in that environment, the energy was just terrible,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

The current world No. 320 is now looking forward to focusing on the \u201cpeople who matter\u201d, and hopes that she\u2019ll be remembered for honestly speaking about her experiences in tennis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Destanee Aiava has shed light on the cruel insults she has received throughout her tennis career after announcing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,193217,195644,195645,82,593,621],"class_list":["post-485344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-destanee-aiava","tag-destanee-aiava-retirement","tag-destanee-aiava-statement","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}