Emma Raducanu has insisted “I’ll be OK” after the behaviour of a male spectator caused the British tennis star to pause a match in tears and raised again the issue of security for female athletes.
The WTA said it was “actively working with Emma and her team” to provide security to the former US Open champion after the incident and said it was “committed … to maintaining a safe environment for all players”.
These were sentiments echoed by the LTA, the governing body of British tennis, which expects to host Raducanu at the HSBC Open this summer, when the women’s game will return to Queen’s Club in west London for the first time in over 50 years.
The man who had earlier exhibited “fixated behaviour” towards Raducanu, in the words of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), will be banned from all future WTA events, pending a “threat assessment”.
The 22-year-old spoke of the “difficult experience” she endured during her Dubai Tennis Championships match against Karolina Muchova on Tuesday night, when she was forced to alert officials mid-match to the presence of an individual in the stands who had accosted her earlier in the tournament.
