It has been the image of the week in the world of sport. Emma Raducanu, a 22 -year -old British tennis player, hiding in tears after the chair judge during her Dubai WTA 1000 party against Czech Karolina Muchva, after having recognized a man who had harassed her in the first rows of the stands The day before.
The man, accused of an “obsessive behavior” towards the champion of the United States Open in 2021 and current number 61 in the world, was arrested this Thursday according to the Local Police, and will have to respect a removal order on the tennis player.
In 2022, Raducanu has already lived an episode of harassment and achieved a five -year departure order against Amrit Magar, 35, who visited his house three times following his historic race in the US Open of 2021.
MAGAR, Former Amazon delivery man, he presented himself three times in Raducanu’s house in Londonthe first to decorate a Christmas tree that left on the porch of the house, another, to leave a postcard in which he drew the path he made from home to that of the tennis player, touring in total 23 miles, and the last When he took a shoe that Raducanu’s father found himself at the door. He also left a bouquet of flowers at the door with the note “You don’t need to tell you anything, you deserve all the love.” The convicted person explained that he carried out these actions for “the fame that the tennis player got after winning the US Open” and that he took the shoe because he thought he was from the player. At that time, Raducanu expressed his fear that similar situations could be repeated, noting that he felt insecure even in his own home.
But Raducanu has not been the only athlete who has seen how his life looked brutally altered when admiration became obsession and finally madness. These are other terrible cases of harassment in sport by sick fans:
Monica Seles
One of the most brutal cases of a sickly admirer occurred precisely on a tennis court. With only 16 years, Monica Seles was the world racket queen. In 1990, she became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam tournament And he did it on the track of Roland Garros, and before which at that time he occupied first place in the world ranking, Steffi Graf. The young Serbian athlete could get what he proposed, she was called to continue making history, but Everything changed on April 30, 1993 and tennis would remain forever with the unknown of knowing how far this exceptional tennis player could have arrived.
It was in the Hamburg Tournament, in the quarterfinal duel against Magdalena Maleeva. Seles had the on track (6-4,4-3), but it was then, With 19 yearswhen suffered an attack that ended marking his lifeand that forced him to leave the slopes more than two years, without being able to achieve time again. Before 7,000 spectators, A disturbed obsessed with Steffi Graf – to which Seles snatched the world scepter – a knife nailed while they were about to drink water at a break from the game. Remember that He noticed a “horrible pain” on his back. Then, he threw himself to the ground. He managed to return to the circuit in 1995, in Montreal, and did it with an incontestable victory, but Psychological sequelae could with her. In addition to this tragic event that marked her life forever, the tennis player had to accept the horror that her aggressor Günter Patch get rid of the conviction, diagnosed with mental alienation and released.
But Monica has not been the only athlete who has seen how her life looked brutally altered when admiration became obsession and finally madness. These are other terrible cases of harassment in sport by sick fans:
Eddie Waitkus
It is the clear example that not only women suffer harassment. The baseball player Eddie Waitkus He was about to lose his life in a hotel room.
Ruth Anne Steinhagen She was an amateur who was obsessed with Waitkus and I wanted it only for her, that’s why she invited him to a hotel room and when he arrived he shot her with a rifle. The incident luckily did not end fatally and could return to the playing land. She was admitted to a psychiatric center.
Sheila Taormina
This athlete also lived an authentic nightmare. Taormina practiced triathlon and in that sport he shone on his own merits until a man named James Conyers He began to harass her and there began his ordeal. The man managed to convince her that he was also an athlete and that he practiced triathlon and in this way he could even train with her. Shortly after the harassment would increase the threatening letters joined one in which detailed how he planned to rape her. Conyers ended up stopped and They sentenced five years in prison.
Sonya Deville
One of the last cases of sport stars victims of a stalker is that of Sonya Deville. In Augoto of 2020, the WWE fighterwhose real name is Daria Berenato, suffered an attempt to kidnapping at her home in Lutz (Florida). A man was arrested with kidnapping charges after being found in the WWE star house, equipped with A knife, flanges and adhesive tape. At the time of arrest, the man confessed that he had harassed Deville for years on social networks and that his intention was to take it hostage, A plan that planned for eight months.
Anna Kournikova
The tennis player was persecuted for months by William Lepeskaa 40 -year -old beggar who was obsessed with her and also sent her letters of sexual content. The harassment climbed to levels so disproportionate that Kournikova had to report it until they arrested him. In the end, they condemned him to 40 years of internment in a psychiatric center To treat your mental problems.
Serena Williams
One of the current tennis figures, Serena Williams, was also the victim of a stalker. His name was Albrecht Stromeyer, a 34 -year -old German who followed her to the tournaments. He ended up being held in New York and confessed that he planned to ask the American player marriage.
The judge prohibited Stromeyer approaching less than 914 meters (1,000 yards) of Serena, his sister Venus, their parents or any other member of the Association of Women Tennis.
Stromeyer acknowledged having stalked Serena in various European cities and in the US. He followed her on the slopes and was staying at the same hotel, and although she had received repeated warnings that she remained remote, until now an order had not been issued Judicial for that purpose.
Michelle McGann
American golfer Michelle McGann suffered harassment of his own caddya man named Patrick Hallett who became obsessed with her after accompanying her in a tournament and believed that they were destined to marry. He sent her letters and gifts continuously, watched her and threatened her until the police arrested him and imposed a restraining order.
The Halletts family said that the former caddie had been diagnosed as a manic-depressive that did not take their medication regularly.
Ariane Friedrich
The German height jumper Ariane Friedrich, runner -up of the world in 2009, denounced in 2012 a policeman who harassed her through the Internet and sent her a photo of a sexual character. A court condemned a fine of 1,050 euros to the 38 -year -old man for having sexually harassed To the athlete.
The conviction came into contact with the athlete through the social network Facebook and He sent him photos of his intimate partsasking if she was interested. Friedrich reacted by spreading on social networks the name and email address of that man.
“I suffered in the past, sexually harassed, and I was already harassed by an unbalanced,” the athlete explained on her Facebook page. “It’s time to react, it’s time to defend myself. It is what I do. Neither more nor less. I don’t want to be a victim again. I am tired and there comes a time when you have to say enough! ” He added. Ariane Friedrich, who is also a police officer, sued the stalker.
Shannon Miller
Joseph Vogt was a companion of the University of the Gymnast Shannon Miller, five times world champion and winner of seven Olympic medals. The man became obsessed with her as he saw her triumph and He ended up stopped after hitting his car against the athlete’s boyfriend vehicle. A fine of $ 500 was imposed.
The jury condemned Joseph Vogt, 25, for a minor harassment after a four -day trial in which he said he never intended to bother the most decorated gymnast in the Olympic history of the United States. He was accused of crashing a vehicle against the back of a truck driving Miller’s boyfriend. Miller, who won two gold medals in 1996 and two of silver and three bronze in 1992, said that this was the culmination of a series of incidents in which Vogt followed and telephone repeatedly. The researchers constantly waited for her outside her apartment They found 115 cuts and 16 video tapes that referred to Miller when Vogt was arrested. In March 1998, a judge granted a request for Protection orders of permanent victims for Miller and her boyfriend.
Mick Fanning
The three times surf world champion, breathed calmly in the end in February 2020 when Australian police arrested Sarah Foot, A stalker who has been behind him for several months. The arrest occurred when he tried to enter the surfer’s house. Sarah Foots was accused, among other things, of following him and “sending letters accusing him of a pedophile, declaring his love and threatening him with death.”
Last March, after the celebration of the trial, The cards with death threats that Sarah, 38, sent to Fanning came to light. In them you could read messages such as: “Sometimes I would like to kill you to end our miserable nonsense“,” I can be a real bitch “or” I have smelled a corpse killed in rockhampton. ” Foote also included a surprising infant confession: “I met a child murderer who drowned his babyhe spent a year in a psychiatric hospital and then released and murdered another child. ”
The defendant was sentenced to 15 months in probation with probationending the particular nightmare of the three -time surf world champion and protagonist of the most famous shark attack in history.