The first thing you noticed, when Emma Raducanu walked into the interview room at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, was the two burly security guards who accompanied her.

The second thing was how astonishingly poised she was when discussing the alarming experience of being stalked through four different cities – from Singapore to Abu Dhabi to Doha to Dubai.

She met every question with a deep and full response, as indeed she has on almost every occasion since she shot to stardom with her unprecedented triumph at the 2021 US Open.

And while most of those press conferences have revolved around coaching appointments or the technical niceties of her serve, this one covered much more troubling territory: the difficulties of spotting a “fixated” fan, and the burden of spending your whole life in the public eye.

Stopping off in the interview room on the way to training, Raducanu had already changed into her latest dark-blue Nike tennis kit. She took a seat in the stalls, rather than up on the dais, as this was a briefing for a small group of familiar reporters.

Where many players would have shut down enquiries about such a sensitive subject, Raducanu was open and engaging, successfully evoking the claustrophobic feeling of being trailed by this over-zealous supporter.

Listening to her run through the sequence of events with such disarming honesty, one found oneself moved by the scale of the daily scrutiny she faces.

There are plenty of social-media trolls who love to dwell on Raducanu’s failure to add another title to that first lightning strike. Those people will never know what it is like to spend a day – let alone a season – walking in her shoes.

Being targeted on the court, where Raducanu’s fame makes her a sought-after scalp, is one thing. But the suffocating feeling of being on constant alert in your daily life is a very different – and unenviable – business.

“In England, it’s pretty difficult for me to just go out and about,” explained Raducanu, who previously had to deal with a stalker named Amrit Magar who visited her house in Bromley three times in the aftermath of her US Open triumph.

“Sometimes I’ve had neck pain from looking on the floor so much with a cap on. But I guess it just comes with the territory. I’m grateful for all the positive support that I get from my fans, and so much love even on the player lawn here. I think you need to spin it into a positive because otherwise, if you look at it the other way, it could easily just get you down.”

Asked whether her experiences in Dubai had given her flashbacks to the Magar case, Raducanu explained: “It was a different scenario. When it happened before, I was with my parents. Whereas this time, I was alone and in a different country, so I felt a lot more vulnerable compared to being in Bromley.

“Everything is a lot more controlled [there], like you’ve got the local police, and here it was just a very foreign situation, and I guess had been going on for quite a long time. So it was very difficult to deal with.”

When Raducanu made her sudden surge in 2021, she could hardly have guessed where this burst of celebrity would take her. It has clearly been difficult to live up to that stunning triumph, but the way she handles herself in public remains hugely impressive.

I have only seen her duck away from enquiries once. Admittedly, that was an extreme case, when she uttered only 58 words in response to 16 questions from myself and my late, lamented colleague Mike Dickson.

As reporters, we were briefly confused by her refusal to engage, but there was a very understandable reason. Demoralised by the pain of her chronic wrist injuries, Raducanu was on the point of booking a pair of serious and potentially career-limiting operations.

Even that 2023 interview was memorable, in an unconventional way. And while her recent results might have been patchy, Raducanu remains as fascinating a figure to listen to as she is to watch. Her answers are animated by the same sharp mind that earned her a pair of As in A-Level maths and economics.

Despite her determination to play a fuller schedule this season, Raducanu had to think twice about travelling out to Indian Wells. This is hardly surprising, in light of her Middle-Eastern experience, but she is clearly glad she made the journey, no matter what happens in Thursday’s first-round meeting with Moyuka Uchijima.

Everyone who spent time with her over the weekend was struck by her sunny mood, which matched California’s cloudless skies. The tournament of Indian Wells loves to sell itself as a “Tennis Paradise”, set in an epic landscape that features both palm trees and snow-topped mountains.

For Raducanu – who describes this as her favourite stop on the tour – such broad vistas offer a welcome antidote to what can be a very enclosed world.