Stalked Serena hires Italian bodyguard

World tennis women's number two Serena Williams has hired an Italian bodyguard to protect her from a German who is infatuated with her and has been harassing her during her European tournaments.

The man, who is known to the authorities, turned up at the German Open in Berlin and again at the Italian Open in Rome, where he was arrested. Despite the unsettling effect of the stalker's presence, Ms Williams went on to win the Italian event.

The stalker, who comes from Bremen but lives in Frankfurt, was spotted again in the crowds at the French Open in Paris over the past two weeks,

This is the third time in the past nine years that the women's game has been hit by a stalker's presence. In April 1993, at a tournament in Hamburg, Monica Seles was stabbed on court just below the left shoulder blade by a 38-year-old German, Gunther Parche, a fanatical fan of Steffi Graf, who wanted to see his heroine regain the world number one ranking from Seles, a winner of eight Grand Slam titles over the previous three years.

Seles was out of the game for more than two years and, since returning in 1995, has won only one Grand Slam tournament, the 1996 Australian Open. She has not played in Germany since and has tried, without success, to have her attacker jailed. Two years ago another world number one, Martina Hingis, was stalked by Croatian holding an Australian passport, Dubravko Racjevic. Hingis also hired protection and at the tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida, Racjevic was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison.

Ms Williams was apparently untroubled by the activities of her stalker yesterday when she beat her sister Venus in straight sets at Roland Garros in Paris to win her first French Open title.

While Serena has an Italian bodyguard, her sister Venus has an Italian boyfriend, 26-year-old Davide Tomasoni, driver of courtesy cars at tennis tournaments.

The couple met at the Italian Open in Rome in 2000. When the United States played Italy in the Fed Cup women's team tournament in Ancona, Venus travelled to Italy early to spend time with Mr Tomasoni.