A Bleak State of Affairs
The precarious state of safety in women's sport.
The WTA has myriad issues. Not all of them mirror societal ones. As a teary-eyed Emma Raducanu hid behind the umpire’s chair a mere two minutes into her second-round match at the Dubai Open, it served as a grisly reminder of an issue that does crossover. A problem women’s tennis has been facing for years – stalking.
It is crucial to say early on that this is not a remotely new issue. It’s not a new issue in modern society. It’s not a new issue in women’s sport. It’s not even a new issue for Raducanu, who, since her incredible summer of 2021, has been subject to, at least one confirmed, stalking attempt. In 2022 a man was given a five-year restraining order after showing up at her family home three times. The stalker even stole a shoe from her father – a sinister souvenir.
Now in Dubai, a man who "exhibited fixated behaviour" was spotted by Raducanu sitting right behind her after he was already reported to have given her a note at her hotel prior to the match. The man has since signed a restraining order, Dubai officials reported yesterday.
The response was absolute, the only good thing about the situation in truth. The umpire Miriam Bley acted efficiently. Opponent Karolina Muchova immediately went over to comfort Raducanu. A prompt statement from the WTA also confirmed a man had been removed and punished.
It read: “On Monday, February 17, Emma Raducanu was approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behavior. 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.
“Player safety is our top priority, and tournaments are advised on security best practices for international sporting events. The WTA is actively working with Emma and her team to ensure her well-being and provide any necessary support. We remain committed to collaborating with tournaments and their security teams worldwide to maintain a safe environment for all players.”
Two hours later and having only lost by a whisker 7-6 (6), 6-4, the ordeal felt no less distant.
“Thank you everyone for the messages of support,” Raducanu wrote on her Instagram story. “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 for the rest of the tournament.”
In December, British number one Katie Boulter told the Guardian that a fan at the Nottingham Open had threatened her, saying he was “outside” the player area and was “going to hurt her”. She reported how a fan had followed her in their car for over 20 minutes as she left Queens Club.
Tennis players feel uniquely vulnerable to these kinds of threats. Last summer I spent a bustling, sun-screen laden few days at the Wimbledon qualifiers in Roehampton. I chatted to Alycia Parks after she finished her hitting session. Her coach gave me a fist-bump. I wished Britain’s Hannah Klugman good luck moments before her match. These interactions were all as the pair weaved past the punters to reach the court. In 2017, I walked past Novak Djokovic as he, head ducked and surrounded by security, walked through the grounds at Eastbourne. It is one of tennis’ most charming qualities – the moments where fans and players tread the same turf. However, clearly there is a downside – one that we’ve been reminded of this week.
The worst part is that it played out in front of us. A lot of the time these incidents are revealed to have happened, prised out during interview and with a matter-of -fact shrug of the shoulders.
Speaking on Radio 5 Live on Thursday morning, the stoic 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli recounted a horrifying tale of a run-in with a stalker early on in her career: “The only thing I can recall myself having the same experience was at Wimbledon 2007 when I reached my fourth final. Someone just followed me through the whole grass season,” she told host Connie McLaughlin.
“So, I played Birmingham, Eastbourne, and that person found a way to get into the grounds, behaving like a ball kid and a groundsman. He found a way to purchase the same kit and get himself onto my court as a groundsperson. I sort of recognised him and it was in my first-round match against Flavia Pennetta that I pointed him out straight away to the All-England club, saying that he was not really a groundsperson - he was not working there. He was someone else stalking me for three weeks.
“They found a way to get his identify, get rid of him, and put his picture on all the entrances of the All England club. It can get that far when you feel a person is so obsessed with you that they feel they have to find a way to get to your court and when you are in that environment - it’s very very stressful. I was very young back then, I was 22 years old as well (like Raducanu) and I remember just getting out of the court and just saying to my Dad, ‘that person doesn’t have the right to be on my court.’”
This is a story archived away into the long history of Bartoli’s career – the memory, closest to what Raducanu experienced, one she’s mostly just dealt with herself, a single memory that is probably not on its own.
In a world governed by social media, Bartoli pointed out how the accessibility to athletes it offers is almost broken: “I think I was lucky in a way, that social media didn’t really exist back then,” she said.
“It was a lot more difficult for people like that to track you because they don’t really know where you live, they don’t really know where you’re about. Of course, they know where you play a tournament, but where you do your pre-season, where do you do your practice, they didn’t really have a clue.
“I think that it has caused a lot of pros obviously because you feel you can interact with your fans but also a lot of cons and one of them being the fact that you’re so accessible in some sort of way and that’s the same through the messaging, abusing on Instagram. They insult you, insult your family and wishing you death and all of that, that’s really through social media when before that didn’t happen that kind of direct access to us.”
While the WTA’s speedy response provided a level of comfort, it’s difficult to see how tennis’ governing bodies won’t need to provide some sort of action plan to try and tackle this increasingly pervasive issue.
Bartoli suggested that requiring names on tickets would be a good place to start– normal fans simply attending out of a love for tennis won’t care. The bad ones with more sinister motives might however be deterred.
However, the man in this case almost didn’t seem worried that he might be caught – if anything it sounds likely that was a core part of the thrill. This wasn’t a faceless social media attack - It was so blasé, so deeply arrogant, so hostile.
This will not go away in a hurry. If anything, especially with the increasingly heightened public profiles of female athletes in sports where they historically were not as well-known, it will increase.
Last year, the WNBA was boosted by the wondrous Caitlin Clark. Yet just last month, a man was charged with stalkingafter having driven to her home three times, and sent her sexually explicit messages.
The arrival of Ilona Maher to Bristol Bears and what she has been able to contribute to Women’s rugby in the UK before even stepping off the plane is objectively great. The hype about her clash with Harlequins and Red Roses star Ellie Kildunne before the pair faced each other a week ago was, for many, a ‘pinch me’ moment.
And yet, the anxiety that their heightened persona’s will bring about an increased threat to their safety is unfortunately, probably inevitable.
The whole damn thing remains a bleak, bleak picture.
Happy Friday all,
I, like I know many others have already, couldn’t help but write away my anger after what this man felt he could do to Emma Raducanu. There are many superb pieces around from some brilliant tennis writers - Molly McElwee’s on her Substack (linked below) and in The I - is worth a read.
It’s been a bit of a grisly week in the news cycle, but here are some stories you might have missed/interesting columns I enjoyed reading.
As always, thanks for reading!
Sam
In The Times - Army chief’s disgust after 1,000 women tell of sexual abuse in the ranks - a grim story about the appalling levels of abuse in the British army.
“More than 1,000 women have shared stories of being raped, abused and harassed while serving in the military in the course of an inquest into the death of Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck, 19. She was found hanged in her barracks at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire, in December 2021 after a block party.”
In The Guardian - The ‘west’ is over. In the Trumpian era, Europe is on its own - an interesting column by Alexander Hurst on Trump and Vance’s threat to democracy.
“Every bit of soft power that the US relinquishes, Europe should grab with both hands.”
In The Times - Lights, camera, inaction: Oscars’ women problem - a brilliant and powerfully written piece by Susie Goldsbrough about the lack of female Oscar winners in the ‘Best Director’ category.
“In the Oscars’ near-100-year history, only nine women have been nominated for directing. The best director winners’ club consists of 72 men and three women: 72-3. That is a jaw-droppingly lame statistic for 2025.”
Great read Sam - really puts it all into perspective 😳