Emma Raducanu will play at Indian Wells next week, despite the stress caused by the stalker who tracked her down on her most recent tournament appearance in Dubai.
Given that Raducanu had not been seen training at the National Tennis Centre since her return from the Middle East, it seemed possible that she might sit this next event out while recovering from a genuinely frightening experience.
But after some consideration, she has now opted to go ahead with the trip to the United States which is likely also to include an appearance at the Miami Open – the Masters 1000 event owned by her management agency IMG – in just over a fortnight’s time.
Raducanu has committed herself to playing a full season in 2025 and Indian Wells – which sits near Palm Springs in the Californian desert – is probably the biggest regular tour stop outside the four majors.
It’s understood that Raducanu will have access to enhanced security at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden after her alarming experience in Dubai. While high-profile players would usually have one or two bodyguards with them while they move through the public areas of a tennis centre, Raducanu is reported to have been offered up to five extra staff members.
She may also have extra security support while off-site, which is where trouble arose in Dubai. In the days before her first match at that event, Raducanu was approached by the stalker while sitting on her own at a cafe outside the tennis centre.
According to Roman Kelecic, the locum coach who was present in Dubai: “That [the cafe approach] was the only moment in a month where I, the fitness coach, the security guard who was with us, was not with her at that moment.
“So, that man was assessing the situation and looking for the best moment to get closer to her. He had a strategy that was terrifying. He thought everything through, calculated it.”
Raducanu would later break down in tears during the early stages of her first-round match against Karolina Muchova.
The man was ejected from that match, and given a restraining order based on what Dubai police described as “fixated behaviour”. Last week, the authorities announced that Raducanu had dropped charges against the man, who is not a British national and is unconnected with the previous stalking case that Raducanu endured in 2022.
Returning to the tennis, Raducanu’s ranking of No55 earns her direct entry into the main draw of Indian Wells. She will probably play her first-round match on Wednesday or Thursday next week.
She will be travelling to California with Yutaka Nakamura, the fitness trainer she appointed in the off-season, and a young coach who works at the Loughborough National Academy named Tom Welsh.
This is only a locum coaching appointment, for the duration of Raducanu’s trip, and her camp say that she is still exploring her options regarding a full-time coach. But there is an irony in the fact that Welsh – a 26-year-old from the Midlands – used to work as a hitting partner for Leylah Fernandez, the Canadian who lost to Raducanu in the final of the 2021 US Open.
Welsh will almost certainly have been recommended by Nick Cavaday, who stepped down as Raducanu’s coach after January’s Australian Open. Cavaday has been suffering from chronic health issues which limit the amount of time he is able to spend on the road.
