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An emotional Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the Dubai Tennis Championships by Karolina Muchova, after a man in the crowd who had displayed “fixated behaviour” was ejected from the venue.
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Raducanu loses in match marred by courtside incident
Emma Raducanu accepted a wildcard for the Dubai Tennis Championships
Emma Raducanu was beaten by Karolina Muchova in a hard-fought match in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships.
However, the match was overshadowed after a man that “exhibited fixated behaviour” towards Raducanu earlier in the week was ejected from the crowd.
The British wildcard was in tears as she approached the umpire’s chair after the second game, with the match briefly halted after Muchova took a 2-0 lead.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) say the individual will be banned from all future WTA events “pending a threat assessment”.
Raducanu would go on to lose the next two games but she fought back from 4-0 down to force a first set tie-break, which she lost after missing a set point.
Having secured an early break in the second, Muchova held off the 2021 US Open champion to seal a 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 victory.
Raducanu, who reached the third round of the Australian Open last month, climbed back into the world’s top 60 last year after missing most of the 2023 season following surgery on both wrists and her left ankle.
In the first round in Dubai, the 22-year-old ended a four-match losing streak – the worst of her career – with a straight-set win over Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
After Muchova broke early in the opening set, Raducanu spoke to the umpire and her Czech opponent appeared to console her before the match continued.
Muchova, a runner-up at the French Open in 2023, will face McCartney Kessler after she stunned world number three Coco Gauff in straight sets.
Gauff won the 2023 US Open
Elsewhere in Dubai, Gauff suffered a third successive defeat as she fell to world number 53 Kessler.
Third seed Gauff, 20, started the year on red-hot form, winning nine matches in a row.
However, since losing to Paula Badosa in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Gauff has lost in the second round at the Qatar Open and Dubai Tennis Championships after receiving a bye in the first round at both tournaments.
Kessler saved five of the six break points she faced against her fellow American before wrapping up a 6-4 7-5 victory in one hour and 29 minutes.
It is the first top 10 victory of her career, while the 25-year-old is also into the third round of a WTA 1,000 event for the first time.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka claimed a 6-3 6-4 victory over qualifier Veronika Kudermetova, while second seed Iga Swiatek stormed past two-time major winner Victoria Azarenka in a 6-0 6-2 win.
Jasmine Paolini continued her title defence with a 6-2 7-5 victory over Germany’s Eva Lys, while Ons Jabeur fell to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 defeat by American Peyton Stearns.
Sixth seed Elena Rybakina beat Moyuka Uchijima 6-3 6-2 to set up a last-16 meeting with world number 10 Badosa, who won 6-2 6-1 against Elise Mertens.
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