The ‘terrifying’ man who targeted Emma Raducanu in Dubai followed the British tennis star across multiple countries, says her temporary coach. Raducanu broke down in tears and was in clear distress during her match at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday, after an alleged ‘stalker’ was removed from the crowd for displaying ‘fixated behaviour’.
The 22-year-old, who hid behind the umpire’s chair, and was later able to complete her match against Karolina Muchova, described the harassment she endured as a ‘difficult experience’ in an Instagram post on Wednesday. Police in Dubai confirmed on Thursday that the man had been handed a restraining order and has been forced to ‘maintain distance’ from Raducanu, with the individual also banned from future tournaments.
Roman Kelecic, who has been coaching Raducanu on a temporary basis while she seeks a new permanent coach after a split with Nick Cavaday, has now claimed that the man had been following her since Singapore. Raducanu headed to Singapore in January and then travelled to the United Arab Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Open, with the Briton later playing in Qatar before a second trip to the UAE for the Dubai Tennis Championships.
‘This man followed her to Singapore, to Abu Dhabi – where I was with her – again in Doha, now in Dubai and we noticed him,’ Kelecic, who also coached Raducanu as a junior, told Croatian outlet Net. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.
Up Next. ‘Initially we thought he was a fan… until he got physically close to her, started having contact in the form of selfies, hugging.’. It has been claimed that Raducanu was approached by the man in a tournament restaurant on Monday – but the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) have insisted that the incident occurred off-site.
The Telegraph reported that Raducanu was approached at her hotel by the man – who handed her a letter – while iNews have stated it was ‘previously understood’ that the 2021 US Open winner was approached in the street. ‘That was the only moment in a month where I, the fitness coach, the security guard who was with us, was not with her at that moment,’ Kelecic added.
‘So, that man was assessing the situation and looking for the best moment to get closer to her. He had a strategy that was terrifying, he thought everything through, calculated it. ‘It’s terrifying how much he, in essence, thought about it all and planned it. His strategy worked, and it was to get closer to her.
‘That evening we reported it immediately and again in the morning, when she was playing the match, because her safety is the most important thing to us.’. Images of the individual were circulated ahead of Raducanu’s match against Muchova, according to Kelecic, who also confirmed that it was the tennis player herself who saw him in the crowd and requested his removal.
‘Three or four hours before the match we have a photo of that stalker,’ Kelecic said. ‘Not only us, the entire security at the tournament has his photo and everyone knows who he is. ‘The first game, two points gone, 15-15, Emma is on the other side of the court and she’s showing us something. At that moment we didn’t know what it was. Emma loses the first game and runs to us, crying, shouting, ‘here he is, here he is, here he is’.’.
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Raducanu opened up about the incident on social media earlier this week, posting: ‘Thank you for the messages of support. Difficult experience [on Tuesday] 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 for the rest of the tournament.’. Raducanu has previously been targeted during her career, with Amrit Magar convicted of stalking and given a five-year restraining order after walking 23 miles to her home in 2022.
