Emma Raducanu “still wary” when going out after stalker ordeal in Dubai

Emma Raducanu was in tears during the stalker incident in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Emma Raducanu “still wary” when going out after stalker ordeal in Dubai

Emma Raducanu (Image via LTA)

Emma Raducanu is currently at the Queen’s Club Championships as she looks to kick off her grass-court season campaign. However, the British No.2 has admitted that she’s still wary of going out on her own following her ordeal with a stalker at the Dubai Tennis Championships earlier this year.

During Raducanu’s second-round match at the Dubai Championships, she hid behind the umpire’s chair in tears after receiving repeated unwanted attention from a stalker in the stands. The stalker was immediately removed from the stadium and banned from WTA events. Also, at the Indian Wells, the 22-year-old was constantly monitored by security so that the event wouldn’t repeat itself.

At the time, Raducanu described that she couldn’t see the ball through her tears and barely breathed after seeing the stalker. However, almost five months after the incident, she hasn’t fully gotten over it. She has participated in six events in the WTA Tour since the incident with the stalker.

In an interview with BBC Sports, she revealed that she tries not to be careless on tour, as her team helps her to watch her back. She added that she feels wary anytime she goes out as she doesn’t want to be in a situation like that again:

I’ve definitely noticed a difference in how people are watching my back when I’m on the site [at tournaments]. I’m obviously wary when I go out. I try not to be careless about it because you only realise how much of a problem it is when you’re in that situation and I don’t necessarily want to be in that situation again. But off the court right now, I feel good. I feel pretty settled. I feel like I have good people around me and anything that was kind of negative I’m just like trying to brush it off as much as I can.

Raducanu has been playing well since the Miami Open, where she reached the quarter-finals. She also produced some excellent displays on clay, reaching the second round of the Madrid Open and French Open and then getting to her first Italian Open fourth round before losing to Coco Gauff in straight sets.

Her last match was against Iga Swiatek in the second round of the Roland Garros, losing in straight sets to the former World No.1. The 22-year-old’s performance has gotten better as the season continues than her struggling display earlier.

Emma Raducanu reveals why she made some changes in her coaching team

Emma Raducanu’s 2025 season changed after she made Andy Murray’s ex-coach Mark Petchey her temporary coach. Petchey guided the British star to her first Miami Open quarter-finals and Italian Open round of 16. However, ahead of the grass-court season, she will be bringing back her childhood coach Nick Cavaday to her team.

Emma Raducanu (via WTA)
Emma Raducanu (via WTA)

Cavaday had stepped aside in January due to health reasons, but will now work alongside Petchey to bring out the best in her. She opened up about the reasons for the coaching change during the aforementioned interview:

[In] the last couple months I found some better form but I’ve also learnt about myself that I can’t necessarily do it with people that I don’t trust, or I don’t necessarily like so, truthfully, for me that’s what’s improved as well in the last couple months. I have a pretty good gut feeling and intuition about people who I get on with, and who I trust. And I think sometimes I try and reason with myself because logically I’m like, ‘OK, well, maybe this person can bring me this and I need it’, and I try and force myself through it, but I’ve just realised, it doesn’t work.

Raducanu, ranked World No.37, will open her Queen’s Club Championships campaign on Tuesday (June 10) against Cristina Bucsa.

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