Iga Swiatek on Wednesday praised the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) “solid” action after a fearful Emma Raducanu broke down in tears at the sight of a “fixated” fan in Dubai while teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva admitted she regularly receives “hateful messages” whenever she loses.
The WTA said it had banned a man who “exhibited fixated behaviour” towards 2021 US Open champion Raducanu during the Briton’s straight-sets defeat to Karolina Muchova on Tuesday.
Raducanu appeared to be crying as she approached the umpire’s chair at 2-0 in the first set of their rain-delayed second-round match.
The match was halted while the Briton spoke with the umpire, who quickly contacted tournament organisers.
The 22-year-old stood behind the official’s chair as the spectator was escorted away, with Muchova rushing to comfort her before play resumed.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the tour revealed that the same man who was removed from the stands had approached Raducanu in a public area earlier in the week.
The WTA said the man has been “banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment”.
Raducanu says she will be fine
Raducanu insisted she would be fine as she thanked fans for their support following a “difficult experience” during the Dubai WTA 1000 event.
Raducanu, reflecting on the incident in a post to her Instagram feed, said Wednesday: “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.”
‘Scary moment’
Swiatek, the current world number two, believes the tour did the right thing, and acknowledges such situations can be hard to avoid, even with strict safety measures in place.
“I know the WTA banned this person from going on-site anywhere on any tournament. So I guess the reaction was pretty solid,” said the five-time Grand Slam title winner on Wednesday.
“I like that because it’s the WTA’s responsibility to keep us safe, for that environment to be safe for us. I guess with their help it’s fine. But, yeah, it’s hard probably to avoid these situations.”
Swiatek revealed she had a close call with a fan at an event in her native Poland in the past and that players should be on alert in public settings to detect, and report, any threat as early as possible.
“We were able to avoid one incident that might have been scary back in the day when I was hosting my own event in Poland,” said the 23-year-old Swiatek.
“There are fans that are kind of, I don’t know, everywhere. But I’m pretty sure that they don’t have any bad intentions.
“Obviously we are public persons, so we should always keep our eyes open and be ready to react if we feel uncomfortable. I’m sure it must have been tough for Emma.”
Swiatek added that there are precautionary measures players can take, like delaying posting photos or videos on social media until after they’ve left a certain location, so members of the public wouldn’t be able to track her down.
Russian teenager Andreeva revealed disturbing threats she received online when she was still competing on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit.
Hate messages from sports bettors is almost a daily occurrence for tennis players online and it’s a problem no one has figured a way to eliminate so far.
Andreeva says she feels safe at tournaments and that she is always surrounded by at least three or four security guards when signing autographs at events, but admits a message she received once on social media has stuck with her.
“After every loss I think every player receives a bunch of hateful messages,” revealed the 17-year-old.
“I remember once when I was young, when I was 14 years old, I was playing one of my first ITF tournaments and I received a message after my loss that said: ‘Look around because I’m going to find you and I’m going to cut your arms’.
“That was still the one that I remember to this day.”
The problem of women tennis players being harassed by mainly male fans is not new: great champions like Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis all had stalkers while Monica Seles, in 1993, was stabbed on court.
More recently, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was attacked and badly injured by a man with a knife in her own home in December 2016.
