Tennis champion Emma Raducanu breaks down after a ‘fixated’ stalker appears during championship match

It’s a sad truth that a woman achieving any level of fame has to be on her guard against creepy guys. Even though she’s just 22, tennis star Emma Raducanu has more experience with this than most, as in February 2022 a stalker walked 23 miles to her home, broke in, and stole one of her father’s shoes. Criminal charges followed, with the stalker being given a five-year restraining order from contacting her.

Now a seriously disturbing incident has taken place at the Dubai Tennis Tournament, where Raducanu was set to play Karolina Muchova. The crowd watched in confusion as Raducano went 2-0 behind and, clearly shaken by something, began crying, heading to the umpire’s chair to explain the situation. Raducano continued the match and put up a decent fight but eventually lost to Muchova, leaving the crowd puzzled as to what had happened.

Emma Raducanu in tears during her match against Karolina Muchova

pic.twitter.com/krmbZ7MoVm

— رينفري (@QRenfri) February 18, 2025

Answers came soon after the match ended in an official statement from the Women’s Tennis Association. This revealed that before the match Raducano had been “approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behavior.” They then revealed that this same individual was sat in the front rows of Raducano’s match. Presumably, she spotted him staring at her during the match and, understandably, felt deeply uncomfortable.

WTA statement on the security incident in Dubai:

On Monday, February 17, Emma Raducanu was approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behavior. This same individual was identified in the first few rows during Emma’s match on Tuesday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis…

— wta (@WTA) February 19, 2025

The WTA confirms that the man was promptly ejected from the match, will undergo a “threat assessment” and will likely be banned from attending all future WTA events. They conclude: “Player safety is our top priority, and tournaments are advised on security best practices for international sporting events. The WTA is actively working with Emma and her team to ensure her well-being and provide any necessary support.”

Those in the comments expressed their sympathies and were relieved that the umpire and security acted quickly to remove the guy from the stadium, praising Raducanu for continuing the match. One points out that female tennis players are especially vulnerable to stalkers: “It’s very easy for fans to get close to them at venues & they r always alone on court unlike other sports stars who always have a team + security. Other celebrities can choose when/where they appear in public, tennis players can’t.”

Others say it’s unfair that Raducanu was expected to continue the match at all after this. While the rules for a tennis player being made to feel uncomfortable by the crowd are unclear, it’s likely that if Raducanu had said she couldn’t continue playing she’d have automatically forfeited the match. As it stands she lost anyway, though her fans argue that “if it weren’t for this incident Emma would’ve won.”

Raducanu hasn’t released a statement about the incident and, frankly, she shouldn’t be expected to. Perhaps there is no realistic way to ensure incidents like this can’t happen again and the best we can hope for is that creeps like this are quickly removed from the crowd and banned from future events. Alternatively, maybe we can hope that some men realize how disgusting and scary behavior like this is and let sportswomen play without being harassed or objectified. But, let’s face it, pigs are going to fly before that last one happens.