World number one Naomi Osaka has shared some of the shocking abuse she regularly receives on social media following her second round exit in Dubai.
Osaka rose to the top of the WTA rankings after defeating Petra Kvitova in a three-set thriller at the Australian Open last month, but didn't fare so well against world number 67 Mladenovic overnight.
Mladenovic broke Osaka's serve seven times on the way to a 6-3 6-3 victory, to set up a third round showdown with Carla Suarez Navarro.
Hours after the defeat, Osaka posted a shocking screenshot to her Instagram story, revealing some of the abuse directed her way.
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The 21-year-old posted a DM sent to her on Instagram, with by the user ergo505, with a caption that said: "Every time without fail."
Unsurprisingly, the ergo505 account is a private one.
The incident is similar to the abuse Australian John Millman opened up about last year.
Speaking after the US Open where he upset Roger Federer before going down to Novak Djokovic, Millman said he expected to be inundated with hateful messages.
"It's a bit of a headache and a bit of a blight at the moment that a lot of players have to deal with," Millman told AAP.
"You try to ignore it, but there's a fair few idiots out there that something possesses them to get online.
"You get that always whenever you have a loss."
Millman believes the abuse is driven by gambling.
“The abuse is 100 per cent betting driven," he wrote in a piece for Players Voice.
"Every now and again you check out a profile of one of these guys. You see they’ve got kids, and you really question what type of people they are to treat others the way they do.”
Speaking after her match in Dubai, Osaka said her serve let her down and that she had been struggling for form during practice sessions.
Dubai was her first tournament since splitting with coach Sascha Bajin, and the new world number one became emotional talking about the split and the added focus on her following her rise to fame.
"This match is the result of that," she said.
"I'm pretty sure as time goes on you guys will stop talking about it. For now, it's like the biggest tennis news, I guess.
"It's a little bit hard because I feel like people are staring at me, and not in a good way."
"I don't think I necessarily understand what position I'm in, in a way, because last year I wasn't even anywhere close to this ranking," Osaka said. "People didn't pay attention to me. That's something that I'm comfortable with.
"I don't know why I'm crying. I don't know why this is happening. I don't really like the attention, so yeah, it's been a little tough."