Katie Boulter revealed the shocking level of online abuse she receives as a professional women’s tennis player before she began the defence of her Nottingham Open title in emphatic fashion.

Boulter believes gamblers who have lost money on her matches are mostly behind most of the abuse and admitted in a raw interview with the BBC how “vulnerable” she feels at receiving such sinister messages, which range from death threats to online trolls hoping she “gets cancer”.

Other examples of the vitriol extends to Boulter’s loved ones. One told her to buy “candles and a coffin for your entire family” with a reference to her “grandmother’s grave if she’s not dead by tomorrow” with another stating she should “go to hell”.

Boulter has never been one to shy away from topics that show a grim underbelly to women’s tennis, revealing last year that there have been times when random people have followed her home from tournaments.