It’s been a difficult week for 22-year-old Tennis star Emma Raducanu, who was moved to tears midway through a match on Tuesday due to a concerning incident involving a male spectator.
During the opening stages of her match against Karolína Muchová at the Dubai Tennis Championships this week, the 2021 US Open champ became visibly distressed and alerted the chair umpire to the presence of a man she spotted in the “first few rows” of the small sports venue. As the match came to a halt, Emma — who has previously been the target of stalking — could be seen sobbing profusely and hiding behind the umpire’s chair before being comforted by her opponent.
The man was removed by security, and the match eventually continued. Notably, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) subsequently issued a statement explaining that this was not the first time Emma had encountered the individual — who had apparently “exhibited fixated behavior” towards her just a day earlier.
Providing more context on Emma’s alleged encounter with the man on Monday, a source told the Telegraph that the suspected “stalker” had handed her a letter outside her hotel. The following day at her match, another insider told the outlet Emma was left immediately shaken when she recognized him in the crowd after having seen him “a number of times previously.”
The incident has reinvigorated wider concerns about the safety of athletes in women’s sports, particularly at smaller tournaments like these. And now, Emma has issued a statement about the incident in Dubai, writing on her Instagram Story on Thursday: “Thank you for the messages of support. Difficult experience yesterday but I’ll be okay and proud of how I came back and competed despite what happened at the start of the match.”
In 2022, a 35-year-old man named Amrit Magar was given a five-year restraining order for stalking Emma following her US Open win in 2021. After making numerous unwanted visits to Emma’s family home in London, and even stealing an item from their porch as a “souvenir,” Magar told authorities he’d been “drawn” to the then-teenage tennis star “because of her high-profile status.”
It seems Emma has since left Dubai, so we’re sending her well wishes. We’ll keep you posted on any updates.