Every time an athlete loses a match, they have to deal with a certain kind of cruel treatment that comes in the form of notifications and inbox floods. Jelena Ostapenko, who is 29 years old and has won more professional tennis titles than most people will ever get in any other sport, felt that cruelty firsthand on August 4, 2026, when she quit a second-round match against Shuai Zhang while behind 6-0, 4-0, and clearly sick and having trouble moving properly on the hard courts in Toronto.
What happened next wasn’t just negative comments about her tennis. It was a worse thing. One of the texts Ostapenko copied and posted on her Instagram Stories said, “If you skipped a meal or two, maybe you would win a match or two.”
Someone else said she was “embarrassing” and “couldn’t even run.” Besides mean messages, there were also threats against her and her family’s lives. These were not just mean messages. It was too much to handle. The comments on posts she had made weeks earlier came in waves and were overwhelming.
This time, she didn’t keep quiet. “These great texts that you get after a bad day on the court when you’re not feeling well (health-wise),” she wrote over the screenshots, her anger barely contained in the text. “I’m pretty sure none of you know what professional sports are.” The next story said, “This is what a professional athlete has to deal with almost every time they lose.” You can’t help but see anger and exhaustion in those words. They sound like someone who has been dealing with this for a long time.
People have been talking about Jelena Ostapenko’s weight gain online for a few years now, usually after she has a bad result. Take a step back and think about what people are reacting to and why they are reacting that way.
Ostapenko beat everyone with one of the most aggressive baseline games the tournament had seen in years. She was 20 years old and had never been ranked in the top 100 when she won Roland Garros in 2017. Some fans think that picture of her body, when she was skinny and still very much a teenager, is the only one that can be used to judge her physical changes since then. That is both not reasonable and, in some circles, just normal.
Our bodies change. Athletes’ bodies change a lot because of how much they train, how their coaches teach, injuries, getting older, and sometimes on purpose. There have been rumors that Ostapenko and her former coach Marion Bartoli looked into putting on weight on purpose to improve the speed and power of their groundstrokes.
The idea was that adding more mass to the ball would make the shot go faster. The main point is that her body is her professional tool, managed by her and her team, and not really anyone else’s business, no matter if that approach led to any changes that could be seen.
Because the abuse is happening at the same time as the Canadian Open match, it is even stranger. Ostapenko took a medical break during the game. She wasn’t losing because of what she was eating; she was clearly hurt or sick because she was clearly flagging while Zhang Shuai, who was 36 years old and ranked much lower, led every rally.
On paper, the score—6-0, 4-0 at the end—looked terrible, but anyone watching could tell this wasn’t a game between two healthy players. Still, some of her vocal social media followers went straight to jokes about skipping meals on their first thought.
It’s still not clear if the people who sent those messages know the difference between being critical and being mean. Some of them may have been bettors who lost money on the match. This is an idea that has been brought up before in tennis, where many people blame gambling for people abusing drugs after losing. Others may just think that having a big audience gives them the right to say bad things about a woman’s body that they would never say to her face. Ostapenko was right to say something about it instead of taking it in silence, no matter what.
Ostapenko was in great shape going into the summer of 2026, which makes this episode so painful. In July, she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Marcelo Arévalo. It wasn’t just a consolation prize; it was a real accomplishment on grass, which is her favorite surface.
In the weeks before the US Open, she hired Piotr Sierzputowski, the coach who made Iga Swiatek a world champion. Something was coming together, and it seemed like she was putting a lot of thought into her future. Even if someone is really sick on a bad day in Toronto, that doesn’t change any of the bigger picture.
It seems like women athletes are held to a very high standard when it comes to this. Many people pay close attention to both their performance and how they look, and if the two can be used together in a cheap joke, someone will always do it.
“She’s still a Grand Slam champion competing at the highest level, while most of her critics could only dream of having a career like hers” was a supportive fan message that Ostapenko posted at the end of her Instagram Stories. It didn’t feel like a mic drop, but more like a much-needed reminder. Maybe for herself. For everyone who is watching, yes.
She’ll be back on the court soon. The game goes on, ranking points rise or fall, and somewhere, a new group of trolls will be watching her next match with a fresh list of mean things to say. With Sierzputowski on her side, she might make it to the finals of the US Open. The abuse may continue no matter what. When will the sport and the places where this abuse happens decide that “this is what a professional athlete has to face” is no longer an acceptable answer? This is the more important question that women’s tennis still hasn’t fully answered.
FAQs
1. Why did Jelena Ostapenko retire from the 2026 Canadian Open?
She retired due to injury and illness while trailing 6-0, 4-0 to Shuai Zhang.
2. What kind of messages did Ostapenko receive after her loss?
She received fat-shaming comments, tennis criticism, and life-threatening messages targeting her family.
3. Has Ostapenko’s weight gain affected her tennis career?
Her career includes a 2026 Wimbledon mixed doubles title, suggesting no serious long-term impact.
4. Why do some fans fixate on Ostapenko’s body rather than her performance?
Many post-loss abusers are believed to be sports bettors who lost money on the match.
5. What is Ostapenko doing to improve her game going forward?
She hired Piotr Sierzputowski, Iga Swiatek’s former coach, ahead of the 2026 US Open.