Revealed: Emma Raducanu was provided with extra security BEFORE her ‘fixated stalker’ ordeal in Dubai, as opponent breaks her silence on ‘strange’ incident

Emma Raducanu had been provided with a beefed up security detail prior to her match at the Dubai Championships after organisers were made aware of a ‘fixated individual’.

The 22-year-old was approached on Monday and handed a letter by a man she had seen several times before. At noon on Tuesday, the day of Raducanu’s second-round match against Karolina Muchova, security teams for the WTA and the tournament were informed of the potential threat.

There was then an attempt made to track down the individual, who it was suspected would try to get on court for Raducanu’s match. These efforts cannot have been helped by the rearrangement of the schedule due to persistent afternoon rain in Dubai, as Raducanu’s match was moved from Court 1 to Court 2.

Standard procedure is for a player to be escorted from the player area to court and back by a minimum of one security officer – this was ramped up in response to the threat, with a security team assigned to escort Raducanu to the match court and remain throughout the match.

The bid to intercept the man before he entered the court failed but the security team was on hand to swiftly remove him once he was spotted in the crowd.

While all that was going on, Raducanu was in tears and hiding behind the umpire’s chair, where she was comforted by her opponent Muchova.

Raducanu broke her silence on the incident with an Instagram Story post on Wednesday

Her opponent Karolina Muchova discussed the ‘strange’ situation after her third-round win against McCartney Kessler

The Czech spoke for the first time about the incident after her third-round win over American McCartney Kessler.

‘It was strange situation,’ said the world No17. ‘I honestly went to serve, I didn’t even know something was happening. Then I saw she’s not on the other side. So I went to check with the referee and she told me what is happening.

‘Obviously you don’t want to see these things happening to anyone, to any woman. So I was just trying to be there, maybe calm her down a little bit.

‘I’m happy they solved it pretty fast. I think she was fine after a while and we just kept going with the match.’

Raducanu thanked Muchova for her help in an Instagram post.

‘Thank you for the messages of support,’ she wrote, alongside a picture of her cup of coffee and Emma, by Jane Austen. ‘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.’