Not only has the year been full of struggles for Emma Raducanu but it has also had some emotional setbacks. Earlier this week, she found herself in the middle of a scary incident at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships. During the tournament, Raducanu was approached in public by a man who displayed fixated behavior toward her. Subsequently, during her second-round match, the same man was spotted seated in the front row. Amid this episode, former WTA star, Samantha Smith issued sympathy toward the British star.

After she spotted the man midway through her second-round match against Muchova, Raducanu alerted the chair umpire and broke down subsequently. She was consoled by her opponent and the man was immediately removed from the stadium. Recently, during an interview, Smith backed Raducanu amid this disturbing episode.

She revealed, “I’ve never experienced this myself, but even a minor incident in the crowd, like if someone is sick or there’s a disturbance, it can be difficult. Tennis players are trained to switch on and off, but I don’t think anyone is psychologically built to deal with what Emma had to deal with in Dubai, and having to deal with that in future matches.”

Further, she went on to add, “The WTA and ATP tours are going to be working hard to review their protocols, which have worked quite well, but they’re putting the safety and wellbeing of the players first. They’re going to see if they can take it to the next level and I think they may have to.”

Following the episode, Raducanu was praised for showing humility and courage. She decided to drop the charges against the man after he signed a formal undertaking that he would stay away from her. Additionally, he was also banned from all future tournaments. After this turn of events, Raducanu opened up about the incident on social media.

Emma Raducanu expresses gratitude to her fans for supporting her

Amid this controversy, social media was filled with messages of support for Raducanu as fans and fellow bigwigs of the tennis world joined in to learn about her well-being. Even Raducanu’s opponent, Muchova backed the British sensation during the match as she suffered an emotional breakdown. As a result, Raducanu’s heart was filled with gratitude after the incident.

She took to social media and wrote, “Thank you for the messages of support. 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 to her for the rest of the tournament.”

After this disturbing episode, Raducanu would hope that a strong comeback would be on the cards for her. It’ll be interesting to see how she performs in the Sunshine Double coming up in a few days.