Emma Raducanu embarrassed controversial Wimbledon star who is Donald Trump 'supporter'

Emma Raducanu once humiliated controversial tennis star Maria Sakkari - who once attended US president Donald Trump's inauguration gala - at Wimbledon. Greek tennis star Sakkari made headlines for the wrong reasons last weekend as she was embroiled in a foul-mouthed confrontation at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany.

The 29-year-old clashed with Yulia Putintseva after defeating the Russian-born Kazakh in straight sets 7-5 7-6 in the tournament's third round. After a tense match, the pair clasped hands over the net but began a back and forth after Sakkari appeared unhappy with the handshake and told Putintseva to "act like a human being". The latter insisted she had, before telling Sakkari to "go f*** herself". An infuriated Sakkari appeared shocked and demanded: "What?!" Gesturing with her arms out wide, Putintseva was likely upset by Sakkari's reaction to winning an epic tiebreaker. She then kept gesturing for her rival to walk away, with Sakkari following her opponent to her chair and saying: "F***ing hell, I'm what?" before telling Putintseva: "Nobody likes you."

It was not the first time Sakkari has been caught up in an on-court row, having also clashed with Danielle Collins in Montreal back in 2023, after she hit a ball into the crowd. Collins pointed out the transgression to the umpire, to which Sakkari, while preparing for her second serve, replied: "It didn't even hit anyone. It was on the ground."

Collins responded: "Shut your mouth, shut your mouth," which only escalated the row. Sakkari asked: "What's your problem? I didn't hit anyone. I framed the ball," while Collins came back with: "You hit the ball into the stands, Maria. You almost hit someone."

Sakkari even attempted to ruffle Emma Raducanu's feathers at Wimbledon last year by stating the British No. 1 was coming up against a top-ten ranked player and that things might not go her way during their third-round SW19 meeting. Yet, Sakkari was served humble pie as she lost inside 92 minutes, suffering a 6-2 6-3 defeat while making 31 unforced errors.

Astoundingly, Sakkari and her boyfriend Konstantinos Mitsotakis were also in attendance at Trump's inauguration gala earlier this year ahead of his second term as president. That's thanks to Mitsotakis, the son of Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was invited by Congressman Konstantinos Bilirakis, representative for Florida.

Mitsotakis, whose grandfather was also the Prime Minister of the country, has been dating Sakkari since around 2020.

Raducanu, meanwhile, was overcome with emotion after coming from behind to beat Ann Li in the first round at Eastbourne earlier this week. The world No. 38 has been struggling with back spasms and was forced to pull out of the Berlin Open last week. After dropping the opening set to her American opponent, she rallied well and came through to enhance her Wimbledon preparations.