Emma Raducanu said “I couldn’t see the ball through the tears, I could barely breathe” in her first interview about her frightening stalking ordeal in Dubai a fortnight ago.
Flanked by a pair of security guards, Raducanu was sitting in an interview room in California and speaking about the presence of a “fixated” spectator at her most recent match against Karolina Muchova.
The incident made global headlines after she halted the match at the end of the second game, and took refuge behind the umpire’s chair until the problematic individual – who is not a British citizen – was expelled from the stands.
He was later released without charge by Dubai police, after signing a document that said he would stay away from her in future.
“I was obviously very distraught,” said Raducanu, who has extra guards with her during this event but has opted against any off-site provision. “I saw him [in the] first game of the match, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna finish.’
“I was playing Karolina, who’s top 17 in the world or something. I can’t see the ball. And I’m like, ‘I literally need to just take a breather here,’ and then 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.
“I think that was a pretty good effort for me to carry on playing in that match, in that scenario. I finished the match [which she lost by a narrow 7-6, 6-4 scoreline], and I even had chances in the first set, but, yeah, it was a very emotional time. And 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.”
Some of the details of the timeline were revealed in the immediate aftermath by Roman Kelecic, Raducanu’s locum coach. Kelecic told a Croatian news website that the unnamed man had followed her through the four WTA events that run back-to-back from Singapore to Abu Dhabi to Doha to Dubai, and then approached her in a cafe at the last spot at the one moment when she was unaccompanied by any team members.
Asked if the cafe incident – at which the man gave her a letter – was the moment when she realised the nature of his obsession, Raducanu replied: “There were two instances, and it was the second one that I just got freaked out by. 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 has a number of enthusiastic fans around the world who attend her matches in an appropriate spirit of celebration and support, including one enthusiast named Mark who always turns up to the Australian Open and sits in the front row.
Asked if it can be hard to tell the difference between healthy support and problematic fans, Raducanu replied: “The thing with Mark, he’s loud, he’s there, he’s front row, he’s wearing an ‘Emma’ shirt. That guy is not like the one in the shadows, who is in the back or is gonna do something that’s maybe a bit nerve-wracking. It’s more the hidden ones that I guess are scarier.”
