British tennis star Emma Raducanu was visibly upset as tournament officials in Dubai ejected a spectator showing ‘fixated behavior’ toward her during Tuesday’s second-round match against Karolina Muchova.
Raducanu appeared to be in tears as she approached the chair umpire during the first set. Play was delayed until security personnel were able to locate the man and escort him away.
“Thank you for the messages of support,” Raducanu wrote Wednesday her instagram.
“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.”
According to the WTA, it was not an isolated incident.
‘On Monday Emma Raducanu was approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behavior,’ the WTA said Wednesday in a statement.
‘This same individual was identified in the first few rows during Emma’s match on Tuesday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and subsequently ejected. He will be banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment.’
Raducanu dropped the first four games of the match and went on to lose to Muchova 7-6 (6), 6-4.
All the players and the plays: Sign up for USA TODAY’s Sports newsletter.
