After beating Maria Sakkari in Dubai on Sunday night, Emma Raducanu talked about how much she was enjoying the city.
“What I like most is that everything is open until late and I am a great night owl, so I can go for a walk at 11 pm,” he said. 'I don't know if that is intelligent or not!'
It was a disposable comment delivered with a smile and a laugh, but the idea of Raducanu, 22, walking through the streets of Dubai after the dusk took a chilling appearance when the events developed in the next few days.
On Monday, a man from his hotel approached Raducanu and delivered a letter. It is understood that it was not the first time that he had seen the individual and the incident left her scared enough to inform him to the safety of the tournament and WTA staff.
On Tuesday, after two games from his second round match against Karolina Muchva, Raducanu saw that same man sitting in the stands, a few ranks from the front.
He broke into the tears, approached the referee Miriam Bley and after a brief conversation he shrunk behind the officer's chair, where she was comforted by much. All the layers of Raducanu, the professional athlete, had been stripped and she seemed exactly as she was: a terrified young woman.
Emma Raducanu was visibly distressed during the Open Dubai on Tuesday night
He was attacked by an “obsessed” man in the stands with whom he had previously found
The incident saw Raducanu break in tears before he recovered bravely to play in
The spectators at that time were bewildered by what was happening, speculating on injuries or some type of panic attack. But a WTA statement published the next morning revealed the gloomy explanation.
“On Monday, Emma Raducanu was contacted in a public area by a man who exhibited fixed behavior,” said the statement. 'This same individual was identified in the first rows during Emma's game on Tuesday and subsequently expelled. He will be expelled from all WTA events awaiting threat evaluation. '
Surprisingly, once the man was withdrawn, Raducanu recovered his composure and played a solid match against an upper opponent, losing 7-6, 6-4. He flew back to London on Wednesday and published on Instagram: 'Thank you for the messages of support. Difficult experience, but I will be fine and I will be proud of how I returned and competed despite what happened.
“Thanks to Karolina for being a great sport.”
A few hours after the incident, Mail Sport understands that the name of the man was shared with Wimbledon, who immediately placed it in an observation list that keeps suspicious people.
The identity of the man has not become public, although we understand that he is not a British citizen, but he may be sure that he has also circulated to tennis organizations around the world.
A Wimbledon spokesman said: “We are aware that there are a number of obsessed people who follow players around the world and work to ensure that players are protected at all times when they are in all the fields of the Club of England.”
The issue of stalkers and obsessive fans is endemic in female tennis.
Karolina Muchva consoled Raducanu and the Czech star was praised for her support
Raducanu published a message on social networks thanking fans after their terrible experience
This is not the first time that Raducanu has been attacked. In 2022, the delivery driver Amrit Magar received a five -year restriction order. Magar had been jumping around Raducanu's house and leaving his gifts. The episode left her 'on the edge', 'scared' and 'constantly looking at my shoulder'.
She is far from being alone. No12 World Danielle Collins had people who called their friends and family; Katie Boulter's car was followed; Coco Gound believed that someone was getting access to the details of their flight and chasing it at airports and Sloane Stephens went through such a serious test that the FBI was involved.
He is revealing that of the three women asked about the stalking in Dubai on Wednesday, two had stories to tell. IgA Swiatek said: 'We could avoid an incident that could have been scary when I was organizing my own event in Poland. We must always keep our eyes open. Miira Andreeva said: “When I was 14, I was playing one of my first tournaments and I received a message:” Look around, because I will find you and I will cut your arms. “
As individual athletes, tennis players are exclusively susceptible to stalking. Compared to a sport like football, players are relatively available to the public, often roam the tournament sites and explore the city during their inactivity time, as Raducanu described in Dubai.
Their schedules are generally presented very much, so it is not difficult to know where they will be on a given day. They informed me of a former player who routinely was verified in hotels with different names to throw the stalker of the aroma.
Perhaps surprisingly, personal security for players is still extremely rare. Serena Williams was one of the few who, for a while, had their own bodyguards.
A modern problem is social networks, whereby the publications of a player can give clues about their location. “Social networks have not helped at all,” said a tennis source, which has worked in the game for more than 30 years. 'Players are even naively publishing where they are eating in a restaurant.
“Players could be smarter about what they are publishing, but they should also enjoy their lives.”
Social networks may have put additional tools in the hands of stalkers, but this is far from being a modern problem.
The theme of stalkers and obsessive fans is currently an important problem in female tennis
Katie Boulter revealed last year that she had been followed while she was out with Alex de Minaur
Serena Williams and Martina Hingis had stalker cases that went to court. Anna Kournikova had multiple obsessed fans and Steffi Graf once had a madman German teenager who tried to commit suicide by cutting her wrists at her door.
The former British no 1 Jo Durie overcame the graf era and spoke with Mail Sport. She articulated one of the problems that women face: Superfans are common in tennis and most are perfectly harmless; But others are not and it is not always easy to notice the difference until it is too late.
“It is when the fan spills in something else, something intrusive and scary,” says the former world no 5. “For a woman makes you feel very insecure.
'I had some great fans, but I had a partner that was too much. They would appear all the time and, in the end, they would expect you to do things for them. They sent me things through the publication … It was a terrifying moment. At the bottom of your mind, you say: When will they appear? What else could do?
Durie describes the effect that such incidents can have on a young player (he was 24 years old at that time). “It's very unpleasant,” he said. 'It makes you feel terrible. There may be insomnia nights.
'It was a feeling that someone was seeing what you were doing. It is not a pleasant feeling.
The turning point for sport was the horrible stabbing of Monica Seles in 1993 in Hamburg, by a crazy graf fan.
That tragedy drastically changed the way the tournaments operate, especially at the Grand Slam level. Police and the presence of security used to be minimal, especially in court. Surprisingly, in Wimbledon fans they used to walk through the grass after a game to ask for autographs.
The tournaments now have hundreds of security personnel, both visible and more discreet, as those located directly behind where players sit in the changes. The players are escorted to practice and match games and in Wimbledon there are even a maze of underground tunnels that can use to cross the place.
IgA Swiatek gave a terrifying vision of the problems facing women's stars with stalkers
The turning point for sport was the horrible stabbing of Monica Seles in 1993 in Hamburg
The WTA and the Wimbledon work with a company called Teseousus Management of Risks fixed, experts in identifying and dealing with obsessive people.
When it comes to stalkers, Wimbledon feels that their ticket system gives them a protection layer, because the tickets are assigned in the vote in advance. In a smaller event like Dubai, where the courts rarely run out, an obsessive fan could wait until the previous day when the game order is revealed and then buy a ticket for the court on which the target player is competing.
With luck, such measures will be consolation for Raducanu and its many companions suffering from similar incidents.
But the way Raducanu recovered to publish a decent action, in addition to showing his mental strength, also gave the depressing sense that all this was just another day in the office.