INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Emma Raducanu returned to the tennis court on Thursday for the first time since a stalker disrupted her second-round match in Dubai last month. While she lost in her first-round match to Moyuka Uchijima, 6-3 6-2, in the round of 128, Raducanu said it was “nice” to just play tennis again and simply focus on the match.
“I love Indian Wells, so I was enjoying, like, the preparation that I had here for the last week,” a pragmatic Raducanu told reporters after the match.
“Yeah, I mean, I had great support around me. I was feeling pretty good. I think today was just a bit of a curveball. But, yeah, I guess it’s just nice, I guess I’m just going to move on.”
Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, had previously told media at Indian Wells that she had been “very distraught” after a man exhibited what the WTA described as “fixated behavior” at multiple occasions in Dubai, including in the stands during a match against Karolina Muchova.
Raducanu was visibly upset once she spotted him in the crowd and stopped play to alert the chair umpire. He was then ejected from the arena and has since been barred from WTA events.
She was then reportedly given extra security by the WTA ahead of Indian Wells.
Raducanu said she felt safe on the court during Thursday’s match and didn’t blame the incident for the loss.
“I didn’t have what happened in Dubai in my head at all today,” Raducanu said. “I think, if anything, like a bit of a lack of preparation on the tennis court, playing someone who played pretty good in these conditions, I mean, extremely awkward in the wind here.”
Raducanu, currently ranked No. 55, will next play at the Miami Open later this month. She will spend the interim working with her new coach Vladimir Platenik, who just arrived to site days before her opener in the California desert.
The pair have yet to do much together but Raducanu described him as “very serious” and “very professional” and someone who “gets on with it.”
Raducanu has won three matches in six tournament appearances this season — and said she could “improve every area of my game” — but sounded focused on the future.
“I think I just need to, yeah, keep trying to put one foot in front of the other and not look back too much,” she said.
