Emma Raducanu has admitted that she was left ‘really worried’ by a short message from the fixated fan who approached her at the Dubai Tennis Championships. The young Brit was left visibly distressed during her second-round match against Karolina Muchova when she noticed the man was in the crowd. She appeared to break down in tears and even took refuge behind the umpire’s chair as she sobbed.
It later transpired that a man who had approached Raducanu a day earlier was seated in the first few rows. The WTA said the man ‘exhibited fixated behaviour’ and was ejected from the match as well as being banned from future events. Opening up on her ordeal ahead of Indian Wells, Raducanu claimed the man approached her in a coffee shop and left her frightened when he admitted to following her ‘everywhere’.
“There were two instances and it was the second one that I just got freaked out by,” she said. “The first one was more like a normal fan approaching you, except for the fact he told me he followed me from everywhere.
“And then [he] kind of watched me in the coffee shop for a while… the second incident was really worrying.”
Raducanu was joined by two security guards while reflecting on the incident, having been given extra protection in light of what happened in Dubai.
“I was obviously very distraught,” she added. “I saw him [in the] first game of the match and I was like: ‘I don’t know how I’m going to finish’. I was playing Karolina, who’s top 17 in the world or something, and I can’t see the ball.
“I’m like: ‘I literally need to just take a breather here’. The first four games kind of ran away from me. I was not on the court, to be honest, and I’m not really sure how I regrouped.”
Raducanu added that although she broke down in tears after stepping off the court, she was proud with the way she carried on after being left shaken by the incident.
“I think that was a pretty good effort for me to carry on playing in that match, in that scenario,” she explained. “I finished the match and I even had chances in the first set but, yeah, it was a very emotional time.
“After the match, I did break down in tears, but not necessarily because I lost. It was more because there was just so much emotion in the last few weeks of events. I needed a week off to take a breather and come here and I feel a lot better.”
Raducanu will be hoping to put the incident out of her mind at Indian Wells, her first tournament since Dubai. She will face Moyuka Uchijima in her opening match and will go up against Coco Gauff if she makes it through to the second round.
