Karen Khachanov says every tennis player is pretty familiar with online abuse and admits it is not a pleasant feeling, but believes that staying smart and not engaging with such people is the best thing to do.
In case you missed it, Elina Svitolina was subjected to some pretty disgusting messages following her Montreal quarterfinal loss on Monday – her DM was full of various insults and some even mentioned her family and sent death threats.
On Tuesday, Khachanov was in action at the Canadian Masters as he defeated top seed Alexander Zverev 6-3 4-6 7-6 (4) to reach the final. In his presser, the 29-year-old Russian was asked whether he noticed Svitolina's post and if he has dealt with something similar.
"My whole career, I would say, I heard it (laughing), like any other tennis player, I guess any other sportsman, athlete, you know," the seven-time ATP champion said.
Khachanov: They want to provoke you and you sometimes want to respond… But don't do that
"Now anyone can write anything they want, from fake accounts or whatever, just to kind of, yeah, piss you off or whatever, just get inside your head. But this is what they are trying to do… But sometimes you want to respond. But at the same time this is what they are trying, they are provoking you. You know, to answer means, means that it matters to you, so you just have to try to get over it," the Russian explained.
In the same interview, Khachanov noted that his agents run his social media accounts and that he only uses social media when he wants to personally check something, and that he tries to avoid reading anything else as much as possible.
Meanwhile, Khachanov is due to play Ben Shelton in the Toronto Masters final. If the 2018 Paris champion wins, it will be his second Masters title.
