‘Couldn’t see the ball through tears… could barely breathe’: Emma Raducanu on Dubai stalking incident | Tennis News
British tennis player Emma Raducanu recently opened up on the traumatising stalking incident that left her in tears during her Dubai Tennis Championships match against Czechia’s Karolina Muchova last month.
After spotting a fan whom the WTA described to have exhibited “fixated behaviour” in one of the front rows at the match, a visibly shaken Raducanu proceeded to hide behind the umpire’s chair. Speaking on Sky Sports ahead of the Indian Wells tournament this week, Raducanu opened up on the emotional toll of the incident which began with the stalker approaching her at a coffee shop.
“There were two instances, and it was the second one that I just got freaked out . The first one was more like a normal fan approaching you, except for the fact he told me he followed me everywhere. And then [he] kind of watched me in the coffee shop for a while… the second incident was really worrying.”
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The 2021 US Open winner said despite her straight-sets loss to Muchova in the Round of 32, she was proud of how she eventually dealt with the situation.
“I was obviously very draught,” Raducanu told reporters on Tuesday. “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 literally couldn’t see the ball through tears. I could barely breathe.”
“After the match, I did break down in tears, but not necessarily because I lost. There was just so much emotion in the last few weeks of the events happening, and I just needed that week off to take a breather and come here. I feel a lot better,” she added.Story continues below this ad
Raducanu claimed that the stalker had previously appeared in tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Doha before Dubai.
The WTA later released a statement saying that the man in question had been ejected from the tournament. The Dubai government also confirmed that the individual signed a formal restraining order and had been banned from future tournaments.
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