"Abhorrent child abuse; send the dad to jail" - Tennis fans demand action against father seen hitting his daughter on tennis court

In a recently-surfaced video on social media, a father was seen hitting his daughter black and blue on the tennis court, apparently angered by her not following her coach's orders.

Posted originally by Croatian actor Igor Guric, a lifelong advocate against violence after experiencing his young daughter's murder, on Instagram, the video shows the girl getting hit in the face and genitalia by her father.

The man went on to beat her to the ground and drag her by the collar, with people yelling in the background demanding that he stop the heinous act. Guric stated in his video that he was going to pass it on to the concerned authorities and that he was hoping for swift action from their end, a sentiment echoed by tennis fans throughout the world.

Taking to social media, fans of the sport were in disbelief looking at the amount of cruelty on display, coming especially from a father, with many hoping he gets sent to prison soon, or worse. Pointing out that it was obvious child abuse that should not go unchecked, one fan wrote on the same:

"Send the dad to jail. Hope he get enlightened there."

"This is abhorrent child abuse."

Another fan wondered how much worse the father would behave behind closed doors if he was bold enough to act this cruelly in public, hoping that the daughter would get help in a timely manner.

"The reason behind why this happened is because they claim that she didnt want to follow her coaches orders. And the piece of shit hitting her is her asshole dad... hopefully she gets help, because god knows what happens behind the scenes if he does stuff like this to his own daughter in public."

Here are a few more reactions from fans:

Tennis players Victoria Azarenka and Rennae Stubbs have spoken up about the horrendous act on social media

Tennis player Victoria Azarenka took to Instagram to condemn the father immediately

Victoria Azarenka was the first tennis player to spot the video on social media and immediately condemned the father. The Belarusian called for action against the man, while also criticizing the people filming the act for not intervening in the first place.

"I don't know who this person is, but wtf is this?!? People filming for this long without intervieng, absolute disgrace. And it happens so much, there has to accountability. Please report who this person is if somebody knows," Azarenka wrote.

Rennae Stubbs also commented on the video after being made aware of it by fans, noting with sadness that it was a fairly common occurrence in the sport and calling the dad a "piece of s**t" for treating his daughter like that.

"Wow disgusting!!! Sadly this happens ALL THE TIME but we sadly don’t have it on film. Anyone who abuses their kids is just a POS," Stubbs tweeted.