Emma Raducanu says she "no longer feels like I'm hiding" having gone through a stalking experience earlier in the year which reduced her to tears on court.Â
Back in March, Raducanu said she "couldn't see the ball through tears" and could "barely breathe" during a stalking ordeal at the Dubai Open.
That day, the Briton approached the umpire's chair in tears just two games into her defeat to Karolina Muchova after receiving repeated unwanted attention from a "fixated" man before and during the second-round match. Raducanu disclosed she had previously been approached twice by the man off-court in different countries.
She later opted not to press charges but the individual has been banned from future tournaments.
"I'm like: 'Okay, are they [people] going to see me on the tube?' It's not a bad thing. I'm kind of just owning that more," Raducanu told media at the National Tennis Centre on Tuesday.
"If people recognise me, if people see me and they want to come up to me, then that's great. I don't necessarily feel like I'm hiding from anything anymore."
Raducanu, who turned 23 earlier this month, said she even suffered from neck pain due to previously keeping her head down in public.
"I've been commuting on the train, so I've been part of rush hour every day, which has also been an experience," she said. "But it's like my switch-off.
"You know what's actually funny: in rush hour, people are so locked in into their worlds. They are all so zoned out, like they're not really paying attention. They're probably not expecting to see me either. I have my hood up or whatever, but they're just so focused and absorbed in their own worlds.
"It's all so crazy, like the haste in which everyone's walking around. It's like everyone's on a mission. You have to get the elbows out just to get through.
"My neck doesn't hurt as I'm not looking down as much."
Reflecting on her stalking experience, Raducanu says she is now past it.
"Honestly, I have gotten over it," she said.
"What did creep me out was I saw a photo of myself in London, and I didn't see the paps [paparazzi photographers]. I was with my two best friends. This happened last week, and it was like some tabloid article saying I had a new boyfriend or whatever. But it's literally my best friend's brother. I was like: 'Come on guys. Be better.'
"We were going to the rugby and, of course, they cropped my best friend out so it was just me and this guy, and I just didn't see the paps. So that's obviously creepy. How did they take this photo? But other than that, I feel good because someone's always watching my back."
Reflecting on her 2025 season, Raducanu says she feels stronger for it.
"I'm content. I think I've learned a lot about myself this year.
"I went through some very difficult times, on and off the court, at the start of the year. But I think it really taught me the strength that I have to pull myself out of it. Also, what I need to do to avoid falling back in again.
"A lot of it is spending time studying, spending time learning, spending time nurturing my brain."
Watch the ATP and WTA Tours in 2026, live on SportNews or and the , giving SportNews customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost.
