The incident during Emma Raducanu’s second-round match at the Dubai Open was not only distressing but sadly familiar. Viewers witnessed the former British No1 appearing to panic, breaking down in tears, and seeking refuge behind the umpire’s chair.
The following day, the WTA confirmed speculations from the audience at the venue that Raducanu had been once again subjected to unsettling behavior, this time from a man displaying ‘fixated behavior’. This was the second instance of such an incident occurring during the tournament.
Despite her remarkable success following her historic victory at the 2021 US Open, Raducanu has had to deal with unwelcome attention. In 2022, a 35-year-old man was found guilty of stalking the young player and sending love letters to her family residence, resulting in a five-year restraining order being imposed.
Unfortunately, Raducanu’s case is far from uncommon among the WTA cohort. Tennis stars have repeatedly spoken out about the dangers of stalkers following the circuit, either in person, or via obsessive social media posting – and there appears to be little evidence the tour or security services can reduce the ever-present threat.
Such is the extent of concern that an anti-stalker police unit monitored players and potential threats ahead of Wimbledon back in 2016.
The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre worked with the All-England Club and an agency, comprised of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists, to identify stalkers and fanatics of players.
Emma Raducanu became visibly distressed during her Dubai Open second-round match on Tuesday evening
The former US Open champion was targeted by a ‘fixated’ man in the stands who had watched her first-round match days earlier
British No1 Katie Boulter revealed last year that she had been followed while out with her now-fiance Alex de Minaur
David James, the former lead clinician at the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, told The Standard in 2016 that the unit would ‘provide briefings to security officers and mention concerns about who might turn up’.
Although Monica Seles’ potentially career-ending stabbing in 1993 represents the high-water mark of the danger of stalkers on the tour, Katie Boulter, Serena Williams, and Sloane Stephens are just three players in recent years to have spoken out about their experience with obsessive ‘fans’.
Here, Mail Sport takes a look at some of the more high-profile cases that have troubled women’s tennis stars.
Katie Boulter
Like Raducanu, Boulter has been the subject of feverish interest from the British public after taking up the No1 spot from her rival, and at times, this has bred unpleasant repercussions.
Boulter detailed last year how she had been followed a number of times, with one stalker trailing her from Queens Club in west London to Sloane Square while she was with her boyfriend, world No8 Alex de Minaur.
‘We went to Sloane Square, got out, went for a walk around the shops and stuff and the same car was following me home,’ Boulter told the Guardian. ‘I was with Alex, so it was absolutely fine, but yeah, it wasn’t the best feeling.
‘It’s something that I’ve always thought about (being a woman). Us as women, if we’re home alone at night, sometimes we do think about those things.’
Venus and Serena Williams
As two of the biggest tennis superstars of the last 30 years, both Venus and Serena Williams have suffered unwanted attention from stalkers, with the latter sister trailed for a prolonged period of time in the early 2000s by German student Albrecht Stromeyer.
The 34-year-old travelled to events in Arizona and in Rome tracking Serena, before he was arrested for breaching the peace at the All England Club ahead of Wimbledon.
When arrested, Stromeyer said: ‘I don’t hate her, I love her, I will never hurt her’, but admitted he had a fixation and that he had ’caused alarm’.
Later that year, Stromeyer followed Serena to the US Open, where he was arrested for watching her practice. Richard Williams, the players’ father, stated that there was little that appeared to stop the stalker, and voiced a threat to ‘kill him’ if he was do something to either of her daughters.
That summer also saw Venus targeted, when a stalker claiming to be a drug-testing official turned up at her house before Wimbledon.
Serena Williams was given additional security after her stalker Albrecht Stromeyer attempted to visit the All England Club at Wimbledon 2002
Danielle Collins
The 30-year-old should have been enjoying a blockbuster year as she played without limits ahead of her supposed retirement at the end of the 2024 season, but in an interview with Telegraph Sport last year, Collins offered a bleakly realistic look behind the scenes at the issues female players have had with stalkers on the tour.
‘(Threatening interactions with fans do) make you a little more cautious and sceptical,’ Collins said. ‘I still to this day have a really hard time when I get boxed in large groups of people, I feel scared when fans come running at me, throw things or touch me because of a few scary situations I’ve experienced.’
Collins noted that she rarely is on her own and that she always ‘makes sure she has security’ at tennis tournaments, adding that she believes that having been stalked in the past has ‘affected (her) very personally’. In some cases, Collins noted, she had been stalked through people she had been friends with, who had also been harrassed.
‘I’ve had to be very vigilant and cautious about how I conduct my life, to make sure I’m safe,’ Collins added. ‘I think sometimes that has come across to fans as being withdrawn, distant, but the reality is that sometimes I’ve had to be more careful about what I say and do because I don’t want certain people knowing where I am, what I’m doing or patterns in my day-to-day life.’
Danielle Collins has been outspoken about how being targeted by stalkers has impacted her public and private personas
Coco Gauff reveals that she has been subject to unwanted attention at airports by those who appear to know her flight details
Coco Gauff
After her breakout Wimbledon appearance at the tender age of just 14, former US Open champion Gauff has been a near-permanent fixture at the top of the women’s sport.
But with the spotlight of celebrity has come a slew of unwanted attention, as Gauff hinted at on social media just last month.
The 20-year-old shared her thoughts on a post by fellow USA Olympian, track and field star Gabby Thomas, opening up her own experiences with stalkers approaching her at airports who followed her from city to city, and appeared to ‘have her flight information.’
In sympathy with Thomas, Gauff commented: ‘This happens to me too, I don’t know how it happens. My theory is maybe someone at the airport tips them off.’
Sloane Stephens
Former world No3 Stephens’ 2017 US Open glory will in many ways always be tainted for the player, with her victory at Flushing Meadows almost overshadowed by the racist onslaught of online harassment the title win unleashed.
In 2023, Stephens revealed that she had suffered from persistent abuse from stalkers for her entire career, with a number of experiences so bad that the FBI had been involved.
‘It’s obviously been a problem my entire career, it has never stopped,’ Stephens said. ‘If anything, it’s only gotten worse. I mean, obviously when there is FBI investigations going on with what people are saying to you online, it’s very serious.’
Stephens has also previously shared that she had testified in a court case against an online abuser, and that stalkers had contacted ‘everyone in her family, non-stop’.
As such, the player is unwilling to see her children follow in her footsteps and join the tour.
Sloane Stephens has been forced to endure vile racist abuse from persistent online harassers
During her tennis heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s Anna Kournikova was one of the biggest celebrities on the circuit
The star was forced to contend with six months living in fear after her retirement due to the fixations of William Lepeska
Anna Kournikova
During her brief but impressive tennis career – which faltered before its time due to injury – Kournikova carved out a parallel life as one of the most glamourous stars on the circuit and biggest celebrities in the sporting world. But since her retirement, the the former world No8 has kept a low profile, perhaps in part due to a troubling six-month harassment campaign by William Lepeska in the mid-2000s.
Lepeska, who was homeless at the time, swam naked in Biscayne Bay attempting to find Kournikova’s house and have the former player save him from appearing to drown. Lepeska also had a tattoo of her name on his arm, sent Kournikova a series of sexually explicit letters and emails, and attempted to follow her to events in Miami and Los Angeles.
During the ensuing court case, Kournikova was forced to answer questions from Lepeska, who provided his own defence, before sharing with the court that she was ‘concerned for her safety’ and ‘frightened and scared’ knowing that Lepeska was out there and ‘obsessed’ with her.
Kournikova was granted a permanent restraining order against Lepeska, but the incident forced her to hire bodyguards and increase her security at home.
Maria Sharapova
In the wake of her shock Wimbledon victory at just 18, Sharapova was poised to take over the mantle from her compatriot Kournikova in the public eye – and prepared for the challenge.
‘I have five bodyguards walking around with me at all times,’ she told the media at Wimbledon in 2005, a year on from her maiden triumph.
Her comment came against the backdrop of news that a man had been banned from the grounds of the All England Club for stalking the teenager, previously lunging at her while she was on court at a tournament in Los Angeles.
In 2008, Sharapova was one of a number of stars believed to be at risk from 11 stalkers who police banned from Wimbledon that year.
Maria Sharapova revealed that she travelled with five bodyguards in a bid to protect herself
Monica Seles (centre) was viciously attacked in Hamburg when Gunther Parche stabbed her in the back during a break in play
Parche was an obsessive fan of Steffi Graf and could not bear the thought of Seles becoming world No1 over the German star
Monica Seles (and Steffi Graf)
By far the most shocking and infamous instance of stalkers harassing tennis stars saw Monica Seles stabbed by a man fixated on her tour rival Steffi Graf during a match in Hamburg in 1993.
Seles was taking her break between games when Gunter Parche leapt over the spectator barrier and plunged a knife between her shoulder blades, in an attempt – he described to police – to ‘hurt Seles so much that she couldn’t play tennis for a long time’.
‘I couldn’t bear the thought that anyone could beat Steffi,’ Parche, who has been described as mentally disturbed, added.
While Seles’ injuries took only a few weeks to heal, such was the mental trauma of the attack that the Yugoslav player took two years to return to the tour. She also refused to play tennis in Germany thereafter, disenchanted with the leniency of Parche’s punishment – two years of probation and psychological treatment due to the attacker’s mental state.
The impact of the incident was swift, with the WTA stepping up security in a bid to prevent a similar attack from taking place at another tournament.
Seles, however, was unconvinced, sharing in 2011 that she was unsure the security measures had improved in the nearly 20 years since. Raducanu is just one of the players currently playing on the WTA tour who could be inclined to agree.
