{"id":98937,"date":"2026-03-04T16:10:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=98937"},"modified":"2026-03-04T16:10:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:10:34","slug":"italian-player-lucrezia-stefanini-reveals-direct-death-threats-via-whatsapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/03\/04\/italian-player-lucrezia-stefanini-reveals-direct-death-threats-via-whatsapp\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Player Lucrezia Stefanini Reveals Direct Death Threats Via WhatsApp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italian No. 138 Lucrezia Stefanini has come forward with a disturbing account of match-fixing intimidation after receiving explicit death threats on her private WhatsApp number just before competing in the qualifying rounds of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. She posted a video<\/a> on<\/span> her Instagram on March 3 where Stefanini detailed in her native language the chilling message she received, which appeared designed to force her to lose the match for betting purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lucrezia Stefanini Received Death Threats via WhatsApp<\/h2>\n

The translation of what Stefanini said \u2014 “I received a WhatsApp message in which I was threatened over winning yesterday\u2019s match. They threatened my family and me and named my parents, the place where I was born, and they sent me a photo of a gun. I\u2019m making this video and explaining what happened because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right to put me under this pressure and unease before a match.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Stefanini immediately alerted the WTA, which responded swiftly by increasing her security detail. Tournament organizers also provided an escort to her car and full support throughout the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the pressure and fear, Stefanini took the court and fought hard in her opening qualifying match against Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva<\/a>. She ultimately lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, but stressed that she refused to let the intimidation dictate the outcome. \u201cDespite it all, I fought until the end to try and win my match, because I can\u2019t permit these people to intimidate me,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

The news has drawn strong condemnation from Italian Tennis and Padel Federation president Angelo Binaghi<\/a>, who described it as \u201can extremely serious and intolerable matter.\u201d<\/em> He added that the sending of images of weapons, the knowledge of personal data, and the intimidation of an athlete mark a deeply concerning escalation that has absolutely nothing to do with sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

This isn’t an isolated instance with Italian players. Mattia Bellucci was subjected<\/a> to an onslaught of hostile social media threats earlier this year, and Francesco Maestrelli publicly described recurrent attacks related to betting frustrations in 2023. <\/span>Gambling addiction is one of the biggest societal problems, and the perpetrators should be identified and punished severely.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italian No. 138 Lucrezia Stefanini has come forward with a disturbing account of match-fixing intimidation after receiving explicit death threats on her private WhatsApp number just before competing in the qualifying rounds of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. She posted a video on her Instagram on March 3 where Stefanini detailed in her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":98954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<\/smartframe-embed>","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,9],"tags":[43588,17712,258,13413,18322,6457,10650,15,364],"class_list":["post-98937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-featured","category-news","tag-angelo-binaghi","tag-francesco-maestrelli","tag-italian-tennis","tag-lucrezia-stefanini","tag-mattia-bellucci","tag-tennis-news","tag-victoria-jimenez-kasintseva","tag-wta","tag-wta-tour"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98937"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98955,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98937\/revisions\/98955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}