Earlier this week, Emma Raducanu faced Karolina Muchova in the Round of 16 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Unfortunately, the action-packed match was overshadowed by a scary scene in the first set.

After two games, Raducanu walked over to the umpire’s chair and pleaded for help. The 22-year-old was visibly shaken, wiping away tears and trying to control her breathing.

The following day, the WTA issued a statement explaining that a fan with “fixated behavior” had been ejected and banned from future events pending a threat assessment.

More details have come to light thanks to Silvijo Maksan of the Croatian outlet Net. According to Maksan, Roman Kelecic, who Raducanu recently hired for the tournament in Abu Dhabi, reached out to share his side of the story.

Kelecic remembered, “That man followed her back in Singapore, in Abu Dhabi where I was with her, again in Doha, now in Dubai.” Raducanu’s team thought he was a fan until “he came physically close to her, started having contact in the form of selfies, huggings, etc.”

When in Dubai, Raducanu went alone to a restaurant that was part of the tennis center when the man approached her and “started obsessively hugging her, taking pictures with her, he didn’t give her peace, and she called for help.”

Kelecic explained that was the only moment in a month when Raducanu was accompanied by himself or other members of her team.

“So, that man was picking up the situation and looking for the best moment to get closer to it. He had a strategy that is creepy, he thought everything through, calculated. It’s amazing how much he, in fact, thought about all this and planned it. His strategy worked, and it was to get closer to it.”

Raducanu’s team reported the incident and a photo of the man to tournament security. However, shortly after Tuesday’s match started, Raducanu noticed the man in attendance during the first game.

After two points passed, Raducanu tried signaling to her team, but they did not know what she was saying. Finally, the 21-year-old ran over to her corner.

“Emma comes in tears, crying, screaming, ‘He’s here, he’s here.’ The audience is watching. I raise my head and see this guy we’ve been seeing for the last 3-4 weeks,” said Kelecic.

Kelecic went into detail about Raducanu’s resilience during the match and almost pulled off the victory. However, she was very upset with the tournament security. “She said that she would sue them if they did not publicly apologize to her,” said Kelecic.

However, Raducanu later dropped charges after the man signed an undertaking not to go near her again, according to James Gray of The i Paper.

Maksan’s interview with Kelecic in Net is worth the entire read as it goes into more detail about Raducanu’s terrifying experience and the history she has with Kelecic going back to her time competing as a junior.

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