As a sports series brimming with Ho Yay for the male characters, The Prince of Tennis is also a breeding ground for shipping wars. Not only of the "women are horrible and so are het pairings" type, mind you.
- In the fandom, Sakuno and Tomoka are heavily bashed by yaoi fans since they both have crushes on Ryoma Echizen, the male lead who is very slashable in fandom despite being just 12-to-13 years old. Their biggest sins? Being females.
- In the case of Dating Sim girls, Tsugumi Obinata from Sanroku no Mystic gets the biggest share of bashing because of her quiet, sweet and shy personality that makes her an Expy of the already maligned Sakuno. The comparisons between her and the more outspoken Ayaka Tsujimoto from Umibe no Secret always give her the shortest end of the stick, and she's deemed as weaker and stupider... in spite of the fact that she and Ayaka are best friends in-story.
- Also, Shizuka Hirose from the Gakuensai no Oujisama game. Completely loathed and accused of being a cockblocker... even when the games are obviously not canon (and neither are Umibe and Sanroku) and you can choose who to pair her with!
- The trope is also sorta invoked in-story in Gakuensai. If Keigo Atobe is the chosen love interest, Shizuka will be attacked, threatened and bullied by Atobe's jealous fangirls for daring to be close to him. So much that, if Atobe learns about this, not only he will call Shizuka out for not telling him about the bullying she has gone through, but he will have to protect and hide her from his own fans at some point.
- Also, Shizuka Hirose from the Gakuensai no Oujisama game. Completely loathed and accused of being a cockblocker... even when the games are obviously not canon (and neither are Umibe and Sanroku) and you can choose who to pair her with!
- Yanagi Renji has been bashed by Inui/Kaidoh fans ever since his and Inui's backstory was brought up, because he used to be Inui's best friend and partner before Inui met Kaidoh and left him without saying anything when his family moved. That's seen as Renji being an horrible and heartless person who hates Inui and wants him to suffer, so his ruthless in-courts behavior (which is a trademark of the Rikkaidai team as a whole) is "proof" of his cruelty, in spite of it being hinted that he preferred to put a Hidden Heart of Gold-hiding facade and remove himself of the picture to not hinder Inui's development as a player.
- This happens even when, in the Finals OAV depicting the Rikkai vs Seigaku second matches, Renji goes Kuudere and begs Inui to forfeit the match when he gets injured by Kirihara during their doubles match in the finals, thus proving his bashers wrong. The fact that he's acting emotional in front of Yukimura himself should clue these fans in, but some still insist Renji is faking his concern for Inui.
- Inui/Kaidoh fans have also been known to bash Momoshiro, who (it is implied) later became Kaidoh's vice-captain after Inui graduated, by flanderizing his Big Eater and Fun Personified character traits to make him an absolute idiot who stuffs his mouth, causes trouble for Kaidoh, and barely does anything else.
- We also have the bad treatment Seiichi Yukimura receives from rabid Atobe/Sanada fans due to Sanada's obsessive (and very slashy) devotion to Yukimura, which they see Yukimura being domineering and possessive of Sanada to not give a chance to their ultra-prettified version of Atobe. And some particularly rabid Sanada/Yukimura fans retaliate by bashing Atobe for daring to get in the way of their super-perfect and super-beautiful OTP.
- Or how some Fujicest fans demonize and bash Yuuta's scheming and flamboyant manager, Hajime Mizuki. Granted, Mizuki wasn't introduced as the most likable person, but not only * did* he pay the price for it, he's not as heartless as rabid Fujicest fans claim he is.
- Or the portrayals of Tezuka and Saeki in fics and doujinshii depicting a Tezuka/Fuji/Saeki love triangle, depending on who the fan writer or doujinshi author likes with Fuji the best. Saeki often takes the brunt of it, sadly.
- Take this paragraph, replace Saeki with Kawamura, and there you go. Tezuka/Fuji and Taka/Fuji fans were okay at first with each other, but the mutual bashing and specially passive-aggressiveness have escalated with time. And nope, no side is innocent in this: Tezuka/Fuji fans are often rather butthurt for Kawamura's share of Fuji Ship Tease, but the Taka/Fuji fans are prone to be incredibly whiny and victimized at the mere mention of Tezuka and TezuFuji.
- An doesn't have it THAT bad, but she still gets pot shots for "stringing Kamio along" and "playing with his feelings" because she's friendly to him but doesn't seem to acknowledge his crush on her. Which brings up rather creepy
Unfortunate Implications about how women should "owe" men love because they show open interest on them. (Or for that matter, anyone owing anybody else love in such circumstances.) - The hate against almost any female characters in this fandom is (and hopefully, was) so ridiculously strong that even Shioin Higaki from the live-action movie got a share of it. A cute mute girl who replaces Sakuno, plays the flute, is the little sister of Egate Higaki (the guy who replaces Hiyoshi in-story) and forms an Odd Friendship with Ryoma, Shioin immediately got petty "Maaaary Suuuuuue" cat calls from the yaoi-crazy fangirls; it died almost immediately off since this was her only intervention in the POT canon, but it still proves how almost any girl in this fandom will be loathed by the fans.
- Also add Atobe to the list, as he is the main target of the Tezuka/Fuji and the Sanada/Yukimura shippers, among other pairings. Atobe is either atacked by Fuji fans in retalliation for severly injuring Tezuka's arm and separating them, or by Yukimura fans because he was "meddling with his relationship with Sanada while he was at the hospital".
