NEW YORK — Caroline Garcia, a U.S. Open semifinalist two years ago, drew attention Wednesday to the ever-present problem of cyberbullying in tennis, particularly by people who bet on matches, after her first-round loss at the Grand Slam tournament.

“Maybe you can think that it doesn’t hurt us. But it does. We are humans,” Garcia wrote on social media. “And sometimes, when we receive (these) messages, we are already emotionally destroyed after a tough loss. And they can be damaging. Many before me have raised the subject. And still, no progress has been made.”

Garcia, a 30-year-old from France who has been ranked as high as No. 4, was seeded 28th at Flushing Meadows but was eliminated by Renata Zarazúa 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday. Zarazúa is ranked 92nd and is making her U.S. Open debut.

Garcia offered examples of “just a few” of the hundreds of messages she said she was sent after losing recent matches, including one telling her she should consider suicide and another that read, “I hope your mom dies soon.”

“And now, being 30 years old, although they still hurt, because at the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl working really hard and trying my best, I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” Garcia wrote. “It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.”

As other players have mentioned in the past, she talked about the issue of being attacked verbally by gamblers upset about losing money.

“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” Garcia said. “The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.”

TELEVISION DEAL: The U.S. Open tennis tournament will stay on ESPN through 2037 under a 12-year contract that starts in 2026, the network and the U.S. Tennis Association announced Wednesday.

The new agreement expands ESPN’s streaming rights and will include coverage on ABC of the tournament’s two Sundays.

ESPN began showing some U.S. Open matches in 2009, splitting the event with longtime broadcaster CBS, before taking over entirely in 2015 under an 11-year deal.