Tennis star recalls horrifying threat she received when competing at 14 years old

Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva has reacted to Emma Raducanu's harrowing saga at the Dubai Tennis Championships by revealing she's also been subjected to a terrifying threat. Andreeva takes on in her quarter-final today, but Raducanu's second-round experience has overshadowed the tournament.

On Tuesday, the 22-year-old during her defeat to Karolina Muchova.

The WTA who "exhibited fixated behaviour" the previous day, and the same individual was "identified in the first few rows during Emma's match."

The 2021 US Open champion informed officials of the situation and was comforted by Muchova as the man was ejected. She later for their understanding.

"Thank you for the messages of support," she wrote. "Difficult experience yesterday but I'll be okay and proud of how I came back and competed despite what happened. Thank you to Karolina for being a great sport and best of luck to her for the rest of the tournament."

Her scare has prompted Andreeva to open up on her own worrying ordeal. It came three years ago when the teenage star was only 14 and still a novice in senior tennis.

"Of course, after every loss I think every player receives a bunch of hateful messages," she said. "I remember once when I was young, when I was 14 years old, I was playing one of my first ITF tournaments.

"And I received a message after my loss which said: 'Look around, because I'm going to find you and I'm going to cut your arms'. That was still the one that I remember until today."

Andreeva admitted that the threat still affects her psychologically. Her admission comes amid concerns that tennis players being targeted online is a growing trend.

Like Raducanu, Andreeva knows all about the perils of being subjected to intense scrutiny as a teenage tennis star. She's currently ranked 14th in the world and reached the semi-finals of the last year.

She is seeded 12th at the WTA 1000 hard court event in Dubai and has beaten Elina Avanesyan, Marketa Vondrousova, and Peyton Stearns thus far. This will be her second career meeting with Swiatek, having been beaten in three sets by the Pole in Cincinnati last August.