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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USGA chief insists the 'juice is not worth the squeeze' of changing equipment testing despite Rory McIlroy driver debacle
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
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Scottie Scheffler is golf's most dominant force since Tiger Woods but he's no shoo-in at the year's most sadistic major, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
On the basis of range talk and betting odds, it will presumably be a source of some relief to 155 of the 156 men at the US Open that a tournament has even been deemed necessary here in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. If conventional wisdom was all that mattered, then plenty of time and money would be saved by signing over the trophy to Scottie Scheffler at the outset. But thankfully golf is a fickle game and Oakmont Country Club is quite capable of burying form guides beneath five inches of dense rough. And therein lies one of the fascinating subplots of this 125th edition of golf's most sadistic major. By that, we mean Scheffler's ability to withstand the really nasty stuff between Thursday morning and Sunday evening. Across the past three years or so, there has been a rapid dwindling in the areas where we can legitimately scrutinise his talent and progress. His three major titles, Olympic gold medal and 16 other wins on the PGA Tour have made Scheffler the most dominant force since Tiger Woods in consideration of the speed and performance metrics with which they were acquired. Amid such brilliance, there are precious few loose ends but this is one: can he do it when the setting is truly fiendish and as far removed from the usual target golf as we will ever see? It is among the last questions at the bottom of a barrel he has emptied with his remarkable acquisition of trophies, including three in his past four starts. By that reasoning, the coming five weeks are intriguing. That applies most glaringly to The Open next month and the quirks of links golf, where he is yet to master an idiosyncratic format of the game. But it also applies here, purely for the fact he has not yet won a US Open and because this particular course is so viciously extreme. Similar to The Open, this major tests resilience to breaking point and its champions are celebrated accordingly. None of which is to say Scheffler is a glorified flat-track bully - that nonsense would be dismissed instantly by his four wins across Bay Hill and Augusta. But Oakmont, while less revered, approaches mythical status for its savagery and the wind has started to build. Taming such a place would be a huge feather in the cap. At halfway to the career slam – Scheffler added the PGA Championship added last month to his two green jackets – we can assume he is rather comfortable with his astonishing rate of progress by the age of 28. But there is always interest in seeing how quickly a star can pass the mile markers. By that standard, it is fun to wonder if his game and temperament can translate to a course where life can often feel unfair. 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SELECTED FIRST-ROUND TEE TIMES 12.07* J-H Kim (Kor), T Pendrith (Can), JJ Spaun (US) 12.18 K Bradley (US), H English (US), T Fleetwood (Eng) 12.18* L Aberg (Swe), H Matsuyama (Jpn), A Scott (Aus) 12.29 JL Ballester (Spa), B DeChambeau (US), X Schauffele (US) 12.40 W Clark (US), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), G Woodland (US) 12.40* S Lowry (Ire), R McIlroy (NI), J Rose (Eng) 12.51 A Bhatia (US), R MacIntyre (Sco), M McCarty (US) 12.51* P Cantlay (US), L Glover (US), S-W Kim (Kor) 18.03 B Koepka (US), M W Lee (Aus), J Thomas (US) 18.14* D Johnson (US), J Rahm (Spa), J Spieth (US) 18.25 V Hovland (Nor), C Morikawa (US), S Scheffler (US) 18.25* T Hatton (Eng), S-J Im (Kor), S Straka (Aut) 18.58* N Dunlap (US), M Leishman (Aus), A Rai (Eng) UK time, *starting from 10th hole 'This is probably the hardest golf course that we'll play, maybe ever,' Scheffler told us this week, and for one of the more understated personalities in the game, that was close to bombastic. 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Reuters
2 hours ago
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Scheffler and DeChambeau set for ultimate U.S. Open test at Oakmont
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