Fear of a knife
Tennis-ace asks for a fan flexion in Wimbledon
Updated on 01.07.2025 – 2:53 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
She wanted to play her best tennis, but it didn’t matter to Julija Putinzewa. A fan in the audience brought the player out of the concept.
Julyja Putinzewa left at the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon without an opportunity. But more than the clear 0: 6, 0: 6 defeat against Amanda Anisimova focused on a scene away from the game: The Kazakhin expressed massive security concerns on the square.
Already in the first sentence Putinzewa turned to the referee during the change of sides. The viewer in the stands is “dangerous” and “crazy”, she said, according to the BBC, and demanded that he should be brought by the facility. “Can you bring it out? I don’t continue to play if he doesn’t leave the system,” said Putinzewa at 0: 3. She is afraid that the man could carry a knife with her.
Putinzewa pointed in the direction of a audience block and gave a description of the man. According to the organizer, the situation was then clarified by security. The 29-year-old later had tears in his eyes and did not win a single game in 45 minutes. After the game she did not give up any statement.
After the match, Anisimova said that the man might “say something when she was about to open”. However, she was convinced that the players would be protected well.
The incident aroused memories of Emma Raducanu. The British has been pressed several times by a stalker in the past. As British media report, the same man is said to have tried to get to Wimbledon tickets-but was prevented from doing so by the security system of the all-English club.
Raducanu was also the goal of a similar incident at the WTA tournament in Dubai in February. At that time she broke out into tears during her second round, had hidden behind the referee chair. A spectator was then removed for “fixed behavior”. Later, the US Open winner from 2021 said that she could hardly breathe.