It wouldn’t have, at first, been clear what caused British tennis player Emma Raducanu, 22, to begin crying during a match in Dubai on February 18. A video clip of the moment shows Raducanu, clearly distraught, approach the umpire to explain what was happening, and then appear to hide behind the umpire’s chair. Her opponent, Karolina Muchova, is seen approaching the chair to comfort Radacanu.
Then, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), explained in a statement that Raducanu was reacting to a spectator in the front rows who had exhibited “fixated” behavior when he approached her in public the day before. This put the whole video into a new light, and made it increasingly difficult to watch.
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Most of us don’t live under the performance pressure that professional athletes do on a good day and, hopefully, most of us don’t know what it’s like to have a stalker. But still, seeing Raducanu so clearly frightened and discomfited hits like a ton of bricks. Because most women do know what it’s like to feel threatened by a man or be sexually harassed. A 2018 study, per NPR, found that a whopping 81 percent of women had experienced sexual harassment of some kind, so perhaps that is why seeing a woman harassed and threatened so publicly hits a different kind of nerve. It often feels like the gains made by Me Too have been steadily sliding backwards ever since they began, and this video is a prime example. Is stalking and harassment Raducanu’s reward for being too successful, too visible, too female?
According to The Athletic, in 2022, a man was given a five-year restraining order after showing up at her home on three occasions, though it is not currently known if this is the same man or not.
In their statement, the WTA said the man had been ejected from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and, “He will be banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment.” The statement continued, “The WTA is actively working with Emma and her team to ensure her well-being and provide any necessary support.” Per the Independent, the man who approached Raducanu in Dubai has been issued a restraining order against the tennis player.
For her part, Raducanu thanked supporters in an Instagram Story, saying, “Thank you for the messages of support. Difficult experience yesterday but I’ll be okay and proud of how I came back and competed despite what happened at the start of the match. Thank you to Karolina for being a great sport and best of luck to her for the rest of the tournament.”
It’s upsetting, if not surprising, that stalkers seem increasingly common for female tennis players. Katie Boulter, Danielle Collins, Sloane Stephens, and Serena Williams have all opened up about being stalked, and it’s only getting worse with social media. “Social media does open up so many opportunities for us to connect with fans, at the same time it sometimes gives access to people who are really unwell and not in a great mental head space,” Collins told the Telegraph.
Emma Raducanu shouldn’t have to be proud of how she came back. This should never have happened at all, but it did, and it keeps happening.
The post Emma Raducanu Spotted a Suspected Stalker During a Match—and the Video Is Hard to Watch appeared first on Glamour.
