Game, set, hate: WTA stars reveal fears after Emma Raducanu’s Dubai shock

DUBAI – Iga Swiatek on Feb 19 praised the WTA Tour’s “solid” action after a fearful Emma Raducanu broke down in tears at the sight of a “fixated” fan in Dubai, while teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva admitted that she regularly receives “hateful messages” whenever she loses.

The WTA said it had banned a man who “exhibited fixated behaviour” towards 2021 US Open champion Raducanu during the Briton’s straight-set loss to Karolina Muchova on Feb 18.

Raducanu appeared to be crying as she approached the umpire’s chair at 2-0 in the first set of their second-round match. The match was halted while she spoke with the umpire, who quickly contacted tournament organisers.

The 22-year-old stood behind the official’s chair as the spectator was escorted away, with Muchova rushing to comfort her before play resumed.

In a statement released on Feb 19, the tour revealed that the same man who was removed from the stands had approached Raducanu in a public area earlier in the week.

The WTA said the man has now been “banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment”.

Swiatek, the world No. 2, believes the tour did the right thing, and acknowledges such situations can be hard to avoid, even with strict safety measures in place.

“I know the WTA banned this person from going on-site anywhere on any tournament. So I guess the reaction was pretty solid,” said the five-time Grand Slam title winner.

“I like that because it’s the WTA’s responsibility to keep us safe, for that environment to be safe for us. I guess with their help it’s fine. But, yeah, it’s hard probably to avoid these situations.”

Swiatek also revealed she had a close call with a fan at an event in her native Poland in the past and that players should be on alert in public settings to detect, and report, any threat as early as possible.

“We were able to avoid one incident that might have been scary back in the day when I was hosting my own event in Poland,” said the 23-year-old.

“There are fans that are kind of, I don’t know, everywhere. But I’m pretty sure that they don’t have any bad intentions.

“Obviously we are public persons, so we should always keep our eyes open and be ready to react if we feel uncomfortable. I’m sure it must have been tough for Emma.”

She added that there are precautionary measures players can take, like delaying posting photos or videos on social media until after they have left a certain location, so members of the public would not be able to track them down.

Russian teenager Andreeva, meanwhile, revealed disturbing threats that she received online when she was still competing on the ITF circuit.

Hate messages from sports bettors is almost a daily occurrence for tennis players online and it is a problem no one has figured a way to eliminate so far.

Andreeva says she feels safe at tournaments and that she is always surrounded by at least three or four security guards when signing autographs, but admits a message she received once on social media has stuck with her.

“After every loss I think every player receives a bunch of hateful messages,” revealed the 17-year-old.

“I remember when I was young, when I was 14 years old, I was playing one of my first ITF tournaments and I received a message after my loss that said: ‘Look around because I’m going to find you and I’m going to cut your arms’.

“That was still the one that I remember to this day.”

The problem of women tennis players being harassed by mainly male fans is not new.

Great champions like Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis all had stalkers while Monica Seles, in 1993, was stabbed on court.

More recently, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was attacked and badly injured by a man with a knife in her own home in December 2016. AFP