Breaking News: Coco Gauff shared own stalker ordeal after Emma Raducanu incident…..See More

Emma Raducanu was left visibly shaken during the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday after being approached by a fan whose ‘fixated behavior’ caused concern

Coco Gauff revealed she had an experience akin to the “fixated behaviour” that Emma Raducanu faced at the Dubai Tennis Championships. Raducanu was visibly upset when she noticed a man who had approached her previously was again in close proximity during the tournament.

The situation escalated when Raducanu, who eventually lost her match in two close sets and has since returned home, spotted the same individual just rows away, leading to his removal from the event and sparking concerns about player safety.

Tennis star Gauff, having recently shared her own unsettling encounter, echoed the fears of female athletes after Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas described being “stalked” by men on TikTok.

In Raducanu’s case, the man involved had his charges dropped but agreed to a formal arrangement to keep his distance following an incident where he handed her a note and took her photo, which led to his ejection.

Thomas came clean about his fears during travel: “At this point, every time I travel, I’m afraid that these men, it’s three to six of them, middle-aged, are going to show up and harass me,” she said. “They have my flight information. And they show up at the front door of the airport at the correct concourse or they show up at my gate, which means they have flight tickets and they get past security and all that.”

“They show up and they ask me to sign a bunch of these photos and pictures of me, like 40 of them. I don’t know what they’re doing with them, probably selling them, I don’t care.

“What scares me is that they have my flight information. I’ve changed all my email passwords, I don’t know if they’re hacking me. But they get really aggressive and hostile if I say ‘no’.”

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Gauff also shared a similar unsettling experience: “This happens to me too, I don’t know how it happens. My theory is maybe someone at the airport tips them off.”

After Raducanu raised the alarm, the WTA responded with a declaration: “On Monday, February 17, Emma Raducanu was approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behaviour.”

“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.”

Lindsay Brandon, the WTA’s director of safeguarding, has pressed for heightened measures from social media platforms regarding user protection. Brandon shared with the Guardian, “I absolutely believe social media companies owe a great deal more to their users to better protect them especially female athletes who we know are a primary target for this type of mistreatment.”

Upon her return to the UK, tennis sensation Raducanu took to Instagram to thank her supporters after a challenging episode, posting: “Thank you for the messages of support. Difficult experience but I’ll be okay and proud of how I came back and competed despite what happened at the start of the match.”