Tennis star hit with horrific rape and death threats after pre-US Open defeat

Australian tennis star Ellen Perez has shared vile abuse she received on social media after reaching the quarter-finals of the Monterrey Open women's doubles. The 29-year-old, who is preparing to play doubles at the US Open, was sent rape and death threats by a sick individual just days before the final Grand Slam of the year gets underway at Flushing Meadows.

Doubles specialist Perez has featured in the last six editions of the US Open and reached the quarter-finals of the event last year alongside Nicole Melichar-Martinez. Her best performance at the New York tournament came in 2022 as the same pairing progressed to the semi-finals before succumbing to eventual champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova. And she will be aiming for glory this year after being forced to contend with the horrific online abuse.

Perez has been in action at the Monterrey Open this week, where she teamed up with Ukrainian star Lyudmyla Kichenok.

The duo, who reached the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open last week, went head-to-head with Leolia Jeanjean and Maria Kozyreva in the last-eight in Mexico before being defeated 7-6, 6-4.

Shortly after the encounter, Perez received the despicable message on Instagram. And she shared the note with her followers as she wrote: "I love a good love letter."

Perez is currently ranked at No. 18 in the doubles rankings and has won eight doubles titles throughout her career.

In February, she lifted the Abu Dhabi Open trophy alongside Jelena Ostapenko and went on to reach the final of Bad Homburg with partner Kichenok in June.

She has also previously appeared on the singles circuit and reached the main draw at Wimbledon 2021, where she lost to Clara Burel in the first round. But last year, she joked that she quit singles to avoid becoming a 'victim' to Iga Swiatek's success.

And during an interview with last year, she outlined her introduction into the sport as she explained: "I guess my parents thought I had really good hand, eye co-ordination. From early on they kind of saw potential.

"And my dad also loved tennis, he would go and play more club level locally. And I guess he really wanted me to get involved. So when I was six or seven - I think closer to seven - he got me down to the local courts. And kind of from there it progressed into some lessons.

"Honestly, I never loved tennis. He had to bribe me to play tennis with candy, lollies. I enjoyed it, but part of my loved football, soccer, way more."