Emma Raducanu: “could hardly breathe”: Tennis star talks about stalking incident

Tennis star Emma Raducanu spoke for the first time about the Stalking incident at the tournament in Dubai in mid-February. She could “literally see the ball for tears and I could hardly breathe,” said the British in the run -up to Indian Wells’ tournament. Since the incident, it has been more vigilant and has increased the safety precautions.

In Dubai, a man had made the US Open winner cry from 2021 in her second-round match against the Czech Karolína Muchová. The man had already followed her for the tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

Information passed on too late

One day before the game, the man Raducanu asked near the player hotel, handed over a letter to her and took a photo with the 22-year-old. This had reported this to her own team, but the information was only passed on to the WTA and the tournament organization the next day. Additional safety precautions could no longer be hit in the short time.

Raducanu had hidden behind the referee chair during the match. The man was banished by the stands. The impartial and Muchova took care of Raducanu, who continued to play and lost the game.

The police in Dubai later arrested the man. He had signed a formal obligation to distance himself from Raducanu. He was closed to future tournaments. The athlete dropped the advertisement against him.

The man is excluded from all WTA events until it is clear whether there was a threat, the professional organization WTA then said. The viewer had previously shown a “fixed behavior” towards Raducanu in a public area.

In 2022, a man was sentenced to non -profit, unpaid work for Stalkings from Raducanu, and he was also banned from contacting. There was no further information about the identity of the man who was excluded in Dubai.