By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday July 2, 2024
Danielle Collins has needed to cope with all sorts of challenges throughout her illustrious enjoying profession. Now that the 30-year-old former World No.7 is looking it a profession on the finish of the season the Florida native says there may be one sort of problem she will’t wait to cease dealing with: coping with stalkers.
Though it doesn’t prefer to broadcast it, tennis has a regrettable historical past with stalkers. There was Monica Seles’ notorious stabbing by a wicked Steffi Graf fan in 1993, in addition to a person who was handed a five-year restraining order for stalking Emma Raducanu and sending her undesirable items.
The 35-year-old man was captured on digital camera at her doorstep two years in the past. Imagine what that would do to a teenager who’d choose to be centered on her tennis? “Since all this has happened, I have felt creeped out. I feel very apprehensive if I go out, especially if I am on my own,” Raducanu instructed police in an announcement. In one other incident a person who had adopted Serena Williams throughout a number of nations was arrested at Wimbledon when he tried to interrupt into the grounds to get near her.
I sat with Danielle Collins at Hyde Park for an hour forward of her ultimate #Wimbledon
What she received’t miss on tour? “The stalkers.”
It was a dialog that highlighted how a lot will be occurring for gamers off the courtroom. Really admire her candour:https://t.co/5FE55dy8zH
— Molly McElwee (@molly_mcelwee) July 1, 2024
“I don’t think it’s something that gets talked about a ton, but many of us have had security issues during our time playing on tour. I had a few different situations over the years. It’s never fun, the feeling of looking over your shoulder,” Collins instructed the Telegraph in an unique interview from London this week.
The American, who’s enjoying her final Wimbledon on this her final season (she’s up a set in a suspended first-round match with Dane Clara Tauson as of the top of Day 2), says that she’s hesitant to be in giant teams of followers and ceaselessly depends on safety to make sure her security.
“Social media does open up so many opportunities for us to connect with fans, at the same time it sometimes gives access to people who are really unwell and not in a great mental head space,” Collins instructed the Telegraph. “It does make you a little more cautious and sceptical. I still to this day have a really hard time when I get boxed in large groups of people, I feel scared when fans come running at me, throw things or touch me because of a few scary situations I’ve experienced.”
Source: www.tennisnow.com