Emma Raducanu: I'm ‘wary' when going out after stalker ordeal in Dubai
The 22-year-old hid behind the umpire's chair in tears after receiving repeated unwanted attention from a 'fixated' man before and during a second-round match against Karolina Muchova in February.
At the time, Raducanu said she 'couldn't see the ball through tears' and could 'barely breathe', while she revealed now that the situation was exacerbated by her being unsettled without a full-time coach.
While Raducanu still minds her surroundings, the 2021 US Open champion wants to move on as she approaches the grass-court season with coaches Mark Petchey and Nick Cavaday in tow.
'It was difficult,' she told BBC Sport. 'It was emphasised by the fact I didn't necessarily feel certain or comfortable in my own set-up and team so it just added to the anxious feeling.
'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.
'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 negative, I kind of brush it off as much as I can.'
Raducanu, who suffered a second-round exit to Iga Swiatek at the French Open, is managing a back issue in the build-up to Wimbledon, having been hindered by persistent spasm issues for much of 2025.
She will feature in the inaugural women's Queen's Club Championships this week, where she will take on Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa in the first round.
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Times
24 minutes ago
- Times
Emma Raducanu: I'm wary when I go out after stalker ordeal
Emma Raducanu admitted she has been 'wary' when going out after her ordeal with a stalker at the Dubai Duty Free Championships this year. The 22-year-old hid behind the umpire's chair in tears after receiving repeated unwanted attention from a man displaying 'fixated behaviour' before and during a second-round match against Karolina Muchova in February. At the time, the 2021 US Open champion said she 'couldn't see the ball through tears' and could 'barely breathe' — and she revealed on Sunday that the situation was exacerbated by her being unsettled without a full-time coach. 'It was difficult,' Raducanu told BBC Sport. 'It was emphasised by the fact I didn't necessarily feel certain or comfortable in my own set-up and team, so it just added to the anxious feeling. '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. 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 negative, I kind of brush it off as much as I can.' Raducanu has meanwhile revealed that she has low expectations for the start of her grass-court campaign because of a back spasm that continues to hinder her after the French Open. She will take part in the singles and doubles, with Katie Boulter, at the HSBC Championships as women's events return to the Queen's Club for the first time since 1973. Raducanu has been practising in west London with Nick Cavaday, the coach with whom she parted ways in January, while Mark Petchey has commentary duties at Roland Garros. Cavaday withdrew five months ago for health reasons, leaving Petchey and Jane O'Donoghue to oversee her performances on clay, but both men are set to help out on grass. 'I'm happy to see him healthy first of all,' Raducanu said. 'It's been a long time since we were last on court together in Australia. Obviously Mark is in Paris commentating so Nick was around and it was nice to just have a few days with him.' Raducanu played encouragingly on clay, reaching the fourth round of the Italian Open and second round of the French Open, but was comprehensively beaten by Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek. Expectation is higher for British players on grass, but a recurrence of the back spasm that affected her in Australia and France has hindered Raducanu's preparations. 'Of course you want to win the tournament, like every tournament, but especially when it's at home,' Raducanu said. 'My expectations, truthfully, are pretty low because I played points for the first time today and I've had maybe two or three days on the grass courts so it's not been much. 'Today was the first day I opened it up and played points on the grass so it's pretty early days. I wouldn't say I've had a lot of prep on it but I felt pretty good today. Playing with Katie in a doubles match on the grass hopefully will help give a good feel of how it is to serve, to move and to react to balls on that surface. British grass-court season HSBC Championships, Queen's Club June 9-15 (women's) June 16-22 (men's) Nottingham Open June 16-22 (women's) Rothesay International, Eastbourne June 23-28 (women's and men's) The Championships, Wimbledon June 30-July 13 (women's and men's) 'I know I've been managing my back for the last few weeks now and that's something that comes and goes. Overall I just have to manage what I can take care of and if it does happen then I just need to deal with it and just keep doing the right thing.' Last year Raducanu reached the semi-finals in Nottingham, where she lost to Boulter, and defeated Jessica Pegula, the world No5, en route to the Eastbourne quarter-finals before a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon. This year's calendar differs because of the restoration of a WTA 500 event at Queen's. After the championships stopped in 1973, Queen's returned in 1977 as a men's-only event, but this year there will be a week-long women's draw to kick off a fortnight of competition. Ten members of the women's top 20 will be in action. Qinwen Zheng is the highest-ranked entrant, followed by Madison Keys and Emma Navarro. Barbora Krejcikova, the defending Wimbledon champion, is here along with the former SW19 victors Petra Kvitova and Elena Rybakina. Joining Raducanu in the singles are fellow Britons Boulter, Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage, Francesca Jones and Heather Watson. Boulter and Raducanu will team up in doubles against Wu Fang-hsien and Jiang Xinyu on Monday. This is novel ground for Raducanu: she competed at the 2022 Citi Open with Clara Tauson, and infamously withdrew from a partnership with Sir Andy Murray at Wimbledon last year. Murray will be at Queen's on Monday when centre court is unveiled as the Andy Murray Arena. Boulter comes into Queen's from an uplifting clay season in which she secured her first tour-level win on the surface, a title at WTA 125 level, and a first win at Roland Garros. 'Obviously I want to do well here, but at the same time I know it's my first week, I'm trying to build towards Wimbledon as well,' Boulter said. 'So I've got quite a few weeks before then.' Kartal also reached the second round at the French Open, and will start at Queen's on Monday with a tough match against Daria Kasatkina, before Burrage faces Amanda Anisimova. Boulter will play Ajla Tomljanovic and Raducanu will take on Cristina Bucsa in the first round.
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Steve Smith not thinking about Ashes as Australia prepare for World Test final
England have been vocal about their long-term planning being geared towards building a team capable of wresting the urn from Australia for the first time in a decade ahead of the 2025-26 series Down Under. However, Smith is zoned in on this week's World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's, starting on Wednesday, before Australia head to the Caribbean for three Tests and five T20s. 'The Ashes is a big series but you also can't look too far ahead,' said Smith, winner of the Compton–Miller Medal for player of the Ashes series in 2017-18 and 2019. 'You've got to keep playing each game as it comes, every game is important with the World Test Championship on the line. 'That's the reason it came in: to make every Test more relevant. We go to the West Indies next week and we've got a series there, that'll be the next focus after this game.' Australia's last Test visit to Lord's in the 2023 Ashes saw an extraordinary bust-up between a couple of players and Marylebone Cricket Club members, one of whom was expelled and two others suspended. Asked about sort of reception he is anticipating from the members this time, Smith replied: 'Unsure, and I'm actually not fussed either way.' Australia defeated India in the 2023 final and are overwhelming favourites to see off the Proteas, whose place at the showpiece has been questioned, including by former England captain Michael Vaughan. Vaughan said they got there 'on the back of beating pretty much nobody', while ex-Australia spinner Kerry O'Keeffe likened their run to 'making the Wimbledon final without playing a seed along the way'. South Africa played only a dozen Tests in the 2023-25 edition and did not have to face either England or Australia, although six successive wins saw them book their spot in the final with a match to spare. Head coach Shukri Conrad said: 'I'm tired of speaking about it, we're here and that's all that matters. We get a chance to walk away World Test champions. 'Playing Australia, it doesn't get any bigger than that. What's gone before counts for absolutely nothing at the minute. We're quietly confident going into this game that we can pull one over them. 'We still hold Test cricket very dearly, our fixture list might not speak to that, but this is the biggest final all of our players have ever been involved in and their biggest match.' Conrad and his coaching staff had dinner on Sunday evening with former England seamer Stuart Broad, who took 113 of his 604 Test wickets at Lord's and has more dismissals against Australia than anyone else. Broad joined South Africa as a consultant at practice on Monday to pass on tips to the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen about dealing with the notorious slope at the home of cricket. 'It was just a casual chat and if I didn't call time at 10:30pm, I think he'd still be there chatting to us,' Conrad said. 'It was really enlightening, really casual and everybody walked away thinking 'that was great', Broady included.'
