Emma Raducanu faces ‘difficult’ reality as she attempts to deal with fame
Emma Raducanu has admitted she considered opting out of playing at this week’s WTA 1000 event at Indian Wells after she was confronted by an individual displaying ‘fixated behaviour’ in her most recent tournament.
The 2021 US Open champion was reduced to tears after receiving repeated unwanted attention from the man before and during her second-round match against Karolina Muchova in Dubai last month.
She agreed to play in Indian Wells after being assured she would have extra security, with the incident sparking some suggestions that the 22-year-old may consider walking away from tennis after a challenging start to her career.
“It could have been dealt with better. Since that incident I have definitely got increased attention and greater security,” said Raducanu.
“All we can do is look at what happened and react to it in a better way, in a more positive way, rather than looking back and blaming the situation. Now it is being dealt with better, so for me that’s important.
“I’m always now very aware and not necessarily doing things on my own any more. I’m always with someone and always being watched.”
Raducanu was also the victim of a stalking incident in late 2021 that left her shaken and in the opinion of Sky Sports Tennis presenter Gigi Salmon, the challenges the British No 2 is facing on a daily basis are hard to appreciate.
“It is impossible for us to put ourselves in Emma’s position as someone who is known around the world, who finds it difficult to go about her normal life without being recognised or approached and then the fear of being followed by someone who feels they know you and have a right to speak to you and be near you,” said Salmon in her Sky Sports coluumn.
“I imagine it’s a difficult balance for ‘celebrities’ to strike, who allow people a glimpse of their life through social media and to show who they are away from their place of work. This is maybe something they do willingly or are encouraged to do by agents, but it does NOT allow people to take advantage of that, assume they really know the person or to approach them. You do not know them!
“Emma has been told she can have added security and the hope is that firstly she feels safe and protected but also that the true fans who are respectful of the players still have the opportunity to get up close to the players.
“That is important to both fans and players and something that we would not want to lose.”
Salmon spoke to Tennis365 last month about the expectations around Raducanu, as she suggested her dramatic US Open win three-and-a-half years ago has had some negative side-effects.
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“There is an expectation there and that will never change and everyone seems to have that with Emma, but the main thing for me is the expectations have changed in her mind,” Salmon told Tennis365 in an exclusive interview.
“It must have been so hard. She did everything backwards. Came from nowhere and all of a sudden, she was a Grand Slam champion.
“Everything was thrown at her from diamonds to cars and this is a young girl who was living at home with her parents when all this happened.
“It would have been easy to think this was all too easy, but she had never played on the tour and it was always going to take time to adjust to that.
“It’s tough. You need to learn what you need to put your body through and deal with the body breaking down, but I feel that having spoken to her, she has reset her mind.
“She knows what she has to do now and the expectations are never going to change. There are people and sections of the media that like to build people up and knock them down and I think he has to ignore that.
“People are always interested in Raducanu and their comments are now always positive. She has to stay away from that and focus on what is important,” added Salmon.
“The changes she has made with Yutaka Nakamura coming in will really help her this year and she will hopefully have some consistency in her team when she adds a new coach.
“She is a little bit older now, she has come through a lot in her life, good and bad. Some people will never give her a break and the noise is always going to be there. Hopefully she finds a way to block it out.”
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