Rebecca Marino quits tennis because of bullying on social media

Think back to those days as kids when you were standing on a basketball court or a putting green or a tennis court day-dreaming about what it would be like to one day be a professional. A kid’s mind wonders to Fenway or Augusta or Wimbledon, creating a fantasy world where you are the person everyone is watching and rooting for and that shot you take or that putt you hit is somehow superimposed on that huge stage.

And then imagine you get there. Hour after sweaty hour you spend on your backhand and serve and you slowly improve to one of the best in the world. And once you get there, you keep getting slammed by people you don’t even know and that forces you to eventually leave the game you worked so hard to enter.

Meet Rebecca Marino, a 22-year-old Canadian tennis player who has been ranked as high as 38th in the world in women’s professional tennis. Marino has a 150-107 record in her WTA career, with no wins and one runner-up back in 2011. This week, Marino announced that she would be retiring from professional tennis because she was struggling with all the online abuse she was getting from “fans” that berated her on social media.