The messages came following his semifinals loss at the ATP Challenger 75 tournament in Manacor, Spain, held at the Rafa Nadal Academy on Mallorca, and the player said they were from sports bettors unhappy about losing money.

Lajal, currently ranked 152nd in the world, shared screenshots of messages he had received aftermath of his semi-final defeat, including from those who had obtained his personal phone number.

The screenshots were in English and included the message:"I really but really hope you will get cancer including your family as well. I hope you will see then [sic] suffer."

Another screenshot Lajal posted read "Look, you son of a b*tch, you're a f*cking loser. I hate you and you must die. You must die, you f*cking son of a b*tch. You and your family must die. You b*stard. I want to kill you."

"Know, we are going to talk, you know what you are doing and you are not dumb as you want people to know you, that's why I'm going to kill all your family," a third message stated.

Lajal, 23, said the abusive and threatening messages had come primarily from disgruntled sports bettors who had lost money on the outcome, and added while he would not normally post on the topic, the messages had gone too far.

"Sometimes these days happen, you lose, but then you get on your phone and somehow people have gotten your number and are calling and texting death threats," he explained, noting the threats and abuse had been directed against his family as well as personally against him after losing.

The player noted abuse like this is the lot of many top players, but questioned the trade-off between this and the big money that sports betting involves: "At the end of the day, ATP keeps accepting all this money from betting platforms, but at what cost?" he noted.

"Gambling addiction is a real issue and I hope these people find and get the help they need," Lajal concluded.

Lajal went through qualifying at the Mallorca event, and defeated Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, a Norwegian player with Estonian roots, 6-3, 6-1 The next round, the quarterfinals, saw him defeat Spanish player Alejo Sanchez Quileze again in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.

The winning streak came to an end however with a 7-6 (7), 5-7 defeat to France's Felix Balshaw (ATP 252) in the semi final, despite the Estonian initially leading the second set 4-1.

The entire encounter lasted two hours and 10 minutes and Balshaw, 20, will face Spanish player Inaki Montes-De La Torre (ATP 274) in the final.

Other top tennis players who have recently reported receiving death threats and abusive messages include Italy's Matteo Berettini and Panna Udvardy of Hungary.

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