Stalked Raducanu 'couldn’t see the ball through tears’

British ace opens up on ordeal at last month’s Dubai Open

- JACK RATHBORN

Emma Raducanu couldn’t see the ball through tears” and could barely breathe” throughout her stalking ordeal at the Dubai Open last month.

The 22-year-old Briton endured a harrowing time when she became the target of a man’s “fixated” behaviour during her second-round match against Karolina Muchova. A visibly stressed Raducanu was brought to tears and hid behind the umpire’s chair, before increased security arrived on court.

In the build-up to her return at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Raducanu opened up on her ordeal, having dropped charges against the man, who was given a restraining order and banned from future WTA events.

“I was obviously very distraught,” Raducanu told reporters before her first-round match against Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima yesterday. “I saw him in the first game of the match and I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to finish.’ I literally couldn’t see the ball through tears. I could barely breathe.