Arthur Bouqier was contacted by a fan who threatened to ‘come after’ him and his family (Image: INSTAGRAM @ARTHUR_BOUQ)
French tennis player Arthur Bouqier received a chilling threat on social media just before stepping onto the court on Tuesday. He defeated Florian Broska at the Thionville Challenger, winning in straight sets to book his place in the second round. Just moments before the match, he was contacted by a furious fan who threatened to track down his family and cause harm.
Bouqier took to to share a message he had received from the fan, who initially expressed his frustration at the current state of French tennis. However, things took a frightening turn when the fan threatened Bouqier and his family should he lose to his lower-ranked opponent. The fan claimed to have placed a significant bet on the match, saying that Bouqier would ‘never be forgiven’ if he failed to win.
It came just weeks after Emma Raducanu was targeted by an obsessive fan in Dubai (Image: GETTY)
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“I just hope you make the effort to beat him in two sets because I have bet 2000 euros for you to win in two sets,” wrote the fan. ‘I swear, if you lose, I will never forgive you.
“I will track you and your family down just to hurt you, even if it means going to prison. Might as well, because if I lose these 2000 euros, l’ll be out on the streets, so my life won’t make sense anymore. I might as well spend my days in prison.
“I swear on my mother’s life that I will come after you. Right now, I am at the court in Thionville, where you’re playing exactly at 15:20. Be careful. These are not empty threats. Good luck.”
In his post, Bouquier tagged the and ITF but the governing bodies are yet to address the incident. It came just weeks after was targeted by an obsessive fan in Dubai, an ordeal which left her visibly distressed.
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A man, who had approached Raducanu a day earlier, was seated in the first few rows during her match against Karolina Muchova. He was later ejected from the match in addition to being banned from future WTA events for displaying ‘fixated behaviour’ towards the young Brit.
, Raducanu claimed the man spoke to her in a coffee shop and left her frightened when he admitted to following her ‘everywhere’.
“There were two instances and it was the second one that I just got freaked out by,” she said. “The first one was more like a normal fan approaching you, except for the fact he told me he followed me from everywhere.
“And then [he] kind of watched me in the coffee shop for a while… the second incident was really worrying.”