Maria Sharapova trolls random plane passenger on Twitter after she catches him reading a story about her

The tennis star had just been knocked out of the Wuhan Open by Swiss player Timea Bacsinszky when she posted the mildly stalkerish tweet

Beware, beware the world No.4 tennis player, who may well be lurking in the seat right behind you as you idly pick your way through a newspaper story about her.

That’s exactly what happened to one air traveller, who was so engrossed in an article about Maria Sharapova on a recent flight, he failed to realise the athlete was sitting in the row directly behind him.

And she had her camera phone poised and ready to evidence the uncanny incident and post it on Twitter, too.

"Hey buddy, I'm right behind you..." she captioned the image.

The man is yet to be identified - or to have come forward.

But his role in the much tweeted about incident has inspired quite the reaction.

Not least from those so bemused as to why Sharapova would ever travel in economy class, that some, perhaps in jest, accused her of deliberately faking the photograph:

The light-hearted tweet was posted after a difficult day for the tennis star, who had just been knocked out of the Wuhan Open by Swiss player Timea Bacsinszky in the third round on Wednesday (24 September).