Shriver, Pam

Subterms

    Latest story

    75 Shares129 Views

    The Importance of High-Pressure Tennis Tiebreakers

    by

    Experts say that players need to take their time to succeed. “The athlete who rushes during a tiebreak gets into trouble,” Pam Shriver says.The WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, brings together the year’s top players for one final showdown. Just because the tournament features only the game’s best doesn’t guarantee close sets — in the last two years, about as many sets have been decided 6-0 or 6-1 as they have 7-5 or 7-6.But it is success or failure in those 7-6 sets, decided by a seven-point tiebreaker, that can make or break a player’s season and their season finale.“The mind-set is the most important part of the tiebreaker,” said Pam Shriver, a Hall of Famer, ESPN analyst and coach for the 19th-ranked Donna Vekic. Shriver, who won 21 Grand Slams in doubles, said having someone by her side helped her remain calm and clear during tiebreakers. “When you take your time, things fall into place. The athlete who rushes during a tiebreak gets into trouble.”Iga Swiatek dominated Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 last year in the tournament’s final, and she is also the best in tiebreakers among the elite eight: In the last two years, Swiatek is 6-2 in tiebreakers against top 10 players, which may give her a critical advantage in this tournament. (The third-ranked Coco Gauff is 4-2 and may also have an edge.)“You need to be extra focused in tiebreaks, especially on the first point because you want to start well,” the sixth-ranked Jasmine Paolini said. (She’s 2-2 in tiebreakers versus top 10 players over the past two years.)Shriver says most players include tiebreakers at the end of practice, but many don’t emphasize how to cope in those situations. However, Paolini said she did not really practice for tiebreakers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 100 Shares169 Views

      in Tennis

      WTA Finals Finds a Last-Second Home in Mexico

      by

      Mexico landed the event this year at the last second, the third year in a row the tournament has been in limbo. That creates havoc with players’ schedules.It was early September, and Iga Swiatek had no idea where her season would end.For the third year in a row, the WTA Finals were in limbo through the start of the United States Open.“For sure, it’s pretty unfortunate and annoying we don’t have any decision yet,” Swiatek said in late August, shortly before the WTA announced that Cancún, Mexico, would host this year’s championship for the world’s top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams. “We, as players, are not involved in all of the discussions.”Professional tennis players are highly structured athletes who plan their schedules months, sometimes years, in advance. Because the WTA Tour competes in nearly 30 countries across six continents with barely an off-season, the women spend much of their lives on the road, crisscrossing time zones and navigating their complicated travel. Knowing when and where they are going to compete is essential to their well-being and injury prevention.In 2019, the WTA began what it thought was to be a 10-year deal for the Finals to be held in Shenzhen, China. When Covid hit the country was shut down. Then, when Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA, said the tour would not return to China until it could establish the safety and whereabouts of the former player Peng Shuai, who had disappeared after accusing a high-ranking government official of sexual abuse, the situation became precarious. Peng eventually resurfaced and retracted her claims of abuse.Now the deal is officially dead. The big question is, will it move to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and, if so, when?Current and former players have mixed feelings about moving the Finals to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesThe WTA board supported a move for this year, but it was scuttled before the announcement was made. Simon then traveled to Riyadh during the tour’s China swing earlier this month to work out details. But then war broke out in the Middle East, delaying an announcement.While the ATP Tour is playing its Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, starting at the end of November, there has been dissension among the women. Many current players, including Jessica Pegula, Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur, are willing to go.“Unfortunately, a lot of places don’t pay women a lot of money and, like a lot of women’s sports, we don’t have the luxury to say no to some things,” Pegula, a member of the WTA Players’ Council, said during the U.S. Open.“I think if the money was right and the arrangement was something that we could get behind, where we could go and create change, then I would be OK playing there,” she added.Maria Sakkari said she thought players needed to be more open-minded. “If the WTA can help women there move forward, then it’s a win for both of us,” she said by phone two weeks ago.Some former players don’t agree.“Why would the leading sport for women go to a country with such a poor track record for women’s rights?” Pam Shriver, a 10-time WTA Finals doubles winner with Martina Navratilova, said by phone. “They’re compromising a payout with core values.”Navratilova wants to see progress before play.“I’m all for opening up a dialogue,” Navratilova, also an eight-time WTA Finals singles champion, said by phone. “But I need to see a commitment to women. I want to know their goals and their education plans. You can’t just go in good faith. If they’re just going for money, it’s a big mistake. The WTA will lose credibility for looking the other way and ignoring Saudi’s human rights violations.”Sabalenka and Jabeur are scheduled to join Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in an exhibition in Saudi Arabia called the Riyadh Season Tennis Cup in December. They will play at Kingdom Arena, which has a seating capacity of about 40,000.The cost of the tournament, including $9 million in total prize money, is to be divided among the WTA, the promoters and the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún is.Daniel Berehulak for The New York TimesBy comparison, the WTA Finals will be played in a 4,300-seat temporary stadium in Quintana Roo. The venue, on the grounds of the Paradisus Cancún hotel, will also feature two on-site practice courts for the players. Operational costs are estimated to be $6 million, which includes building the stadium. The cost, including $9 million in total prize money, is to be divided among the WTA, the promoters and the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún is.“Staging the WTA Finals in Cancún was one we could meet and tick off lots of boxes,” said Fabrice Chouquet, a director of the tournament. “The culture, the fans, giving players from around the world the opportunity to be in Mexico, where we have great weather and good conditions to host the event and vibrant hospitality because that’s also the signature of Mexico.”Two years ago, the Finals were held in nearby Guadalajara and won by Garbiñe Muguruza. Last year, after much delay in announcing the venue, the event was moved to the 14,000-seat Dickies arena in Fort Worth, which experienced a dearth of attendance until the final weekend. Caroline Garcia won the title.For more than 20 years from 1979-2000, the year-end championships were played at Madison Square Garden in New York and routinely attracted more than 15,000 fans.This year, total prize money for singles and doubles will be $9 million. If the champion goes undefeated in round-robin play, she will pocket $3 million.This year’s singles competitors include the Australian Open champion Sabalenka, the French Open winner Swiatek, the U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff, the Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova, Elena Rybakina, Pegula, Jabeur and Sakkari. Karolina Muchova was the eighth qualifier, but she was forced to withdraw last week because of a wrist injury, allowing room for Sakkari.Sabalenka, Swiatek and Sakkari are playing for the third straight year, while Pegula, Gauff and Jabeur are second-year competitors. Rybakina and Vondrousova are making their Finals debut this year.One other issue facing the WTA Finals this year is its proximity to the Billie Jean King Cup, the international team competition for women, which begins in Seville, Spain, just two days after the end of the Finals in Cancún. Pegula, Gauff and Swiatek have declined to play in the King Cup. It is the second year that the two signature events have conflicted.“We’ve had our date for a long time,” said King in a video conference this month. “I think we all need to figure out a better calendar for the players and everybody knowing what’s going to happen because you can’t start making these decisions on the Finals in September. It’s only fair.”Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic has a busy end of the season.Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesThe issue is requiring masterful juggling, not to mention mental gymnastics, for Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. After reaching the final in Zhengzhou, China, two weeks ago, Krejcikova flew 1,000 miles to Zhuhai, China, where she was the top seed in last week’s WTA Elite Trophy, a year-end competition for 12 top singles players and six doubles teams who just missed the cut for the WTA Finals.But Krejcikova and her partner, Katerina Siniakova, also qualified for doubles at the WTA Finals, which begins on Sunday. That requires a 9,000-mile trip from Zhuhai to Cancún.Then, as soon as the WTA Finals end, Krejcikova will fly yet another nearly 5,000 miles from Cancún to Seville for the Billie Jean King Cup. But she will at least have company as her Czech teammates Siniakova and Vondrousova are also playing in Cancún and Seville.Regardless of scheduling difficulties, travel headaches and the politics involved in choosing tournament sites, players who qualify for the WTA Finals relish the opportunity to compete.“I always felt that it was a celebration, a reward for a great season,” said Sakkari, who reached the semifinals last year with wins over Sabalenka, Pegula and Jabeur. “It’s huge. There are just seven other players there, and you’re playing against the best of the best. That’s very unique.” More

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      Amid U.S. Open Fanfare, U.S.T.A. Fights Questions of Its Handling of Sexual Abuse

      by

      Kylie McKenzie accused a U.S.T.A. coach of inappropriately touching her when she was 19. In depositions, the organization has questioned her sexual history.For several months, the United States Tennis Association has positioned this year’s U.S. Open as a key moment to celebrate its 50-year record of leadership on women’s equity and empowerment, tied to its payment of equal prize money to its top players.At the same time, it has been litigating its handling of accusations of sexual assault made by a female player who worked with a male coach at the U.S.T.A.’s marquee training center in Florida, with depositions that have included detailed questioning about the woman’s sexual history.Kylie McKenzie, a 24-year-old from Arizona who was once one of the most promising junior players in the country, sued the U.S.T.A. last year, claiming the organization had failed to protect her from a coach who inappropriately touched her after a practice in 2018, when she was 19 and he was 34.Attempts to mediate a settlement have not been successful, prompting lawyers to begin to depose witnesses as they prepare for a possible trial.During those depositions, a lawyer for the U.S.T.A. asked McKenzie about how many sexual partners she had had before the incident, about medications she had taken to treat anxiety and depression, and about the nature of her discussions with her therapist.The lawyer asked the player’s mother, Kathleen McKenzie, whether she knew that her daughter had taken birth control pills and a morning-after pill.The types of questions, though common in lawsuits centered on sexual abuse, have been widely criticized by advocates for victims, who say they discourage women from coming forward when they are abused.“This is what always happens,” said Pam Shriver, a former player and television commentator who was deposed in the case as a witness for McKenzie and who has worked with the U.S.T.A. on and off for years.In a statement, Chris Widmaier, chief spokesman for the U.S.T.A., said the organization had “no intention of revictimizing or shaming” McKenzie in any way. “We were given inconsistent testimony and were simply seeking to determine which version was true,” he said.Shriver testified that U.S.T.A.’s top lawyer, Staciellen Mischel, last year warned her to “be careful” about her public statements on sexual abuse in tennis. Shriver has become an ally of McKenzie’s since going public with her own story of abuse last year in an interview with The New York Times.When a lawyer representing the U.S.T.A. in the McKenzie case asked Shriver whether anyone at the U.S.T.A. had discouraged her from speaking out about sexual abuse, she responded: “Depends how you interpret the conversation from Staciellen. Part of my interpretation was that I needed to be careful. And in that interpretation, meaning don’t say too much.”When asked about Mischel’s conversation with Shriver, Widmaier said the organization had deep sympathy for Shriver. “We would never stifle anyone from telling her story,” he said.McKenzie’s case stems from her work with a coach, Anibal Aranda, who worked at the U.S.T.A.’s center. The organization had supported her development since she was 12, and she had spent time training at its centers in California and Florida. McKenzie described an escalation of physical contact and isolation that made her uncomfortable. She initially thought that Aranda had different norms for physical contact because he had grown up in Paraguay before moving to the United States. Then, on Nov. 9, 2018, Aranda sat close to her on a bench after practice so that their legs were touching and then put his hand between her thighs, she said.McKenzie quickly reported the incident to friends, relatives, U.S.T.A. officials and law enforcement. The U.S.T.A. promptly suspended and then fired Aranda, who denied touching McKenzie inappropriately. A lengthy investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the organization tasked with investigating sexual and physical abuse claims in sports, found it “more likely than not” that Aranda had assaulted McKenzie. The police took a statement from McKenzie, stated there was probable cause for a charge of battery and then turned the evidence over to local prosecutors, who opted not to pursue a criminal case.Aranda did not return repeated messages seeking comment.McKenzie said she soon began to experience panic attacks and depression, which have hampered her attempts to progress in her sport.During the SafeSport investigation, a U.S.T.A. employee said that Aranda had groped her and touched her vagina over her clothes at a New York dance club around 2015. She did not disclose the incident to anyone at the time. The employee told SafeSport that after she learned about McKenzie’s accusations, she regretted not reporting her interaction with Aranda.Widmaier has said previously that the U.S.T.A. only learned about the accusations made by one of its employees toward Aranda after McKenzie reported her complaint to the authorities, and that it moved to fire Aranda immediately.McKenzie has spent the year playing in lower-tier tournaments while battling anxiety and depression. As of late last month, she was ranked 820th in the world.In April, weeks after she made the final of a tournament in Tunisia, she testified for seven hours in her pretrial deposition. Kevin Shaughnessy, a lawyer at BakerHostetler representing the U.S.T.A., asked her about the weeks leading up to the 2018 incident, and questioned why McKenzie did not report earlier instances of inappropriate touching by Aranda during workouts as he coached her on how to serve.McKenzie said that she did not expect Aranda’s behavior to escalate and that she did not expect to be pursued sexually. “I was naïve,” she said.Shaughnessy then asked her whether she had had a boyfriend previously, or if she had ever had a guy “come on” to her before. When McKenzie said she was not really involved with boys at the time, he asked about the number of sexual partners she had had and whether she had been intimate with a particular player at the training center.In July, Shaughnessy deposed McKenzie’s mother and asked whether she had been told by another U.S.T.A. coach when McKenzie was 14 that her social life was getting in the way of her tennis, and that she should have her phone taken away because she had kissed a boy. Kathleen McKenzie was also asked if her daughter had ever believed she was pregnant.Robert Allard, McKenzie’s lawyer and a specialist in representing victims of sexual assault in sports, said the U.S.T.A.’s questioning showed a strategy of “belittling, embarrassing and intimidating survivors.”Shriver, who has worked to support the U.S.T.A.’s efforts to increase participation and helped raise money for the organization and its foundation, said she was initially torn when Allard asked her to testify. However, she has made supporting tennis players who are assault victims a priority.“In the end, I feel a real pull to support and give some perspective to what it’s like to be a player and have a coaching situation not be professional,” Shriver said on Friday at the U.S. Open, where she was commentating for ESPN. “I feel like supporting young women who have been traumatized.” More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Tennis

      When Coco Gauff and Zendaya Need Tennis Tips, They Ask Brad Gilbert

      by

      Gilbert, a former pro, coached Andre Agassi to a U.S. Open victory in 1994. Now he’s advising Gauff — in between calling matches — at this year’s tournament.Brad Gilbert — tennis junkie, junkballer, commentator, coach of legends — had roughly seven minutes to trade his coaching hat for a microphone, to shift from helping Coco Gauff manage her third-round match Friday night to interviewing Novak Djokovic in the tunnel before his.That match, by the way, ended just after 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, and Gilbert had spent Friday afternoon calling matches before heading to Gauff’s courtside box. It was well after 2 a.m. when he got back to the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott. Then he spent an hour analyzing the video of the match that Gauff’s next opponent, Caroline Wozniacki, had won that afternoon. Finally, around 3:30 a.m., he clicked off the light. Rise and shine arrived at 6.“Been coming to this place since 1981,” Gilbert, who travels with an espresso machine, said between sips of coffee as he headed to his office, a.k.a. the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, on Saturday morning. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”Indeed, this is the life Gilbert has chosen.For 40 years, he has been a near-ubiquitous presence in the sport, rising through the 1980s to the No. 4 ranking in the world, despite his quirky, awkward, ugly strokes, then pivoting to coaching and television work, often at the same time, in that hybrid way that is oddly common in tennis. Andre Agassi had him at his side when he won the U.S. Open in 1994, as did Andy Roddick, in 2003.Now, at 62 and a decade removed from top-level coaching, Gilbert is back in the trenches and quickly becoming a star of this year’s U.S. Open, albeit in a supporting role to the 19-year-old Gauff, who is among the biggest stars of this quintessentially American tennis party. One minute, Gilbert is chatting and applauding Gauff through a practice session. The next, he’s hustling through the crowds, fist-bumping fans who treat him like an old buddy on his way up to the ESPN commentary booth to mingle with a decidedly older set of stars from his era, such as Chris Evert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver.Gilbert with Coco Gauff during a recent practice session.Earl Wilson/The New York Times“A very funny man,” Gauff said earlier this summer of Gilbert, whose coaching exploits she knew little about, since, as she pointed out with a giggle, they mostly happened before she was born. “I didn’t want to be with someone who’s a wall. But he’s definitely not a wall.”Tennis fans love and hate his nerdy player nicknames. Stan Wawrinka, the Swiss tank of a player, is “Stanimal.” Carlos Alcaraz is “Escape from Alcaraz.” And on and on.It’s a good life. Has been for a while.Gilbert is the same as he ever was, Shriver said. She and Gilbert first bonded at the 1988 Olympics, two sports nuts who won medals while hopscotching from swimming to wrestling to track and field to take in the competition.“He loved scouting,” Shriver said. “Loved game plans.”Last year took an unconventional turn. For nearly a decade, Gilbert had been working with junior players on private courts in California. Then the phone rang with an odd request.Zendaya, the actor and music star, had signed on to star in “Challengers,” an upcoming movie about a professional tennis love triangle.Small problem: She had no idea how to play tennis. Could Gilbert teach her and her co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist how to play well enough to not look ridiculous? Also, could he set up and design the points in the action scenes?Sure, why not, Gilbert said. He and Zendaya started showing up at Pepperdine University tennis matches to help her understand the game. There were three months of training in California, then four months of rehearsal and filming in Boston and New York.When it was done, Gilbert looked around and saw that his friends from television were coaching top pros part-time. Darren Cahill was working with Jannik Sinner, the Italian ranked sixth in the world. Shriver was working with Donna Vekic, the talented veteran from Croatia.Gilbert wanted back in with a top American player. He put the word out and began to get some offers, but he wanted to make sure it was with the right player, a member of the elite whom he believed he could help and who shared his hunger.Gauff celebrated her first-round win against Laura Siegemund at the U.S. Open.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesAfter Gauff lost in the first round at Wimbledon in July, another disappointing Grand Slam result for a player who believes she is ready to win the biggest titles, he got a call from her team. They wanted him to speak with her parents about sharing his been-there wisdom as an adviser alongside Gauff’s new and somewhat-inexperienced coach, Pere Riba.American? Check.Elite? Check.Hungry? Triple check.“A super kid,” he said of Gauff on Saturday.Gauff’s shortcomings were hardly a mystery: a shaky forehand and serve in tight moments; a struggle to maximize her prodigious strengths — her speed and ability to cover the court, her fitness, her blazing backhand, a laserlike first serve.Used the right way, those tools have gotten her far. Maybe Gilbert’s brain could get her over the line.“He loved discussing matchups, how to get to people’s weaknesses,” said Andy Murray, who worked with Gilbert earlier in his career. “It was very focused on the strategy and finding ways to win matches.”Gilbert and Gauff’s team have kept quiet about the specific ways he has helped her, but anyone who watches him and hears what he says from her box during matches can figure it out: Know what’s coming, and play to your strengths.“Make it physical, Coco,” is a constant refrain, a reminder that she can chase down balls all night long if she wants to, taking the legs and the heart out of opponents.Gilbert has little use for the statistics that have come into fashion among many elite teams. He ignores the screen in the coaching box that gives coaches real-time data.“I trust my eyes,” he said.He has been trying to introduce Gauff to his music, sending her links to songs by Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles. Gauff, a fan of City Girls — a Miami hip-hop duo featuring artists Yung Miami and JT — has yet to share her thoughts.Still, at the moment, she and her team have every reason to trust his eyes, too. Gauff has won two of her first three tournaments with him on the team, and 14 of 15 matches, including three at the U.S. Open.Andy Roddick, right, embraced Gilbert after winning the U.S. Open men’s singles final in 2003.Vincent Laforet/The New York TimesThen there is this: Gilbert began working with Agassi in March 1994, and Agassi won the U.S. Open that September. Gilbert began working with Roddick in June 2003. Three months later, Roddick was the U.S. Open championThey were different players. Agassi, Gilbert said, had a photographic memory and an analytical mind that could take apart a match hours later, stroke by stroke, with total recall. Roddick was so exuberant that Gilbert had roughly 15 seconds to deliver any message before his attention went elsewhere.His take on Gauff? Kind of like Zendaya, he said.Both were prodigies who began working on their craft and breaking through as young children. They’re around the same height, about 5-foot-10. And Zendaya has the wingspan of someone closer to 6-4, he said. Great athletic physique. If only he had gotten to teach her tennis when she was younger.They were texting the other day, on Zendaya’s 27th birthday. She told him she was watching and was all in on Gauff. He said he was, too. Just as he wanted. More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Tennis

      Pam Shriver’s Fight to End Sex Abuse in Women’s Tennis

      by

      The 21-time Grand Slam doubles champion is doing four-way duty as a television commentator, a coach, an ally to sexual abuse survivors and an agitator for changing the game’s culture.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — It was late in the afternoon of an early round at the BNP Paribas Open in the California desert, and Pam Shriver was having a day.There had been practice and strategy sessions with Donna Vekic, the talented 26-year-old Croat she has been helping coach since October. She had been going back and forth with Lindsay Brandon, the WTA Tour’s new director of safeguarding, the cause that has become Shriver’s focus over the past year.She was also spending time with a woman named Karen Denison Clark, who had reached out to Shriver in February as a fellow survivor of sexual abuse. Still ahead was a night match to call as a commentator for the Tennis Channel.This is how it is for Shriver these days. She was long known to fans as a 21-time Grand Slam doubles champion and a leading television analyst, but Shriver’s life changed last year when she spoke openly for the first time about the man who had coached her when she was a teenager. Don Candy, who died in 2020, was 50 years old and Shriver was 17 when the relationship moved beyond coaching. Shriver now understands that the relationship, which lasted five years, was sexually and emotionally abusive.Since she told her story, Shriver’s existence has become a test of juggling often conflicting missions. She is a leading face and voice for tennis. She is also the tip of the spear in the fight to expose abuse. She is one of the game’s few female coaches, as well as an ally for survivors of the kind of harassment she views as all too prevalent.“I don’t mind hurting women’s tennis if it means helping women tennis players,” Shriver, 60, said last week, sitting at a picnic table as fans streamed across the grounds of the BNP Paribas Open, the so-called fifth slam, with Clark beside her. “This is a tour that for decades and decades looked the other way.”She told her story, she said, because she wanted to change the culture of her sport, and the effects have already been significant.Shortly after Shriver went public, Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA Tour, announced that the organization would conduct a wholesale review of its safeguarding policies and hire its first director of safeguarding. Brandon, a lawyer, started late last year with a mandate to make the sport safer by overseeing investigations into complaints of abuse and revamping the WTA Tour’s rules and standards.At the BNP Paribas Open, her first tournament, she met with Shriver and dozens of players, and said she had spent most of her first three months on the job looking into ongoing investigations. Her first major move has been to require anyone seeking a women’s tour credential, including players and members of their support staffs, to complete a new online safeguarding education program before the French Open.After Shriver spoke with Dave Haggerty, the president of the International Tennis Federation, the organization required a wider range of people to adhere to its guidelines and strengthened its rules on prohibited behavior.Her advocacy also led to her coaching gig with Vekic, a member of the WTA Tour’s player council, when a discussion about safeguarding during a tournament in San Diego evolved into a conversation about Vekic’s play. Within weeks, Vekic had added Shriver to her coaching staff, making her one of the rare female coaches in professional tennis.Shriver, right, and coach Don Candy arriving at the airport in Sydney ahead of the Ladies Australian Indoor Classic in 1982.Antony Matheus Linsen/Fairfax Media, via Getty ImagesHer biggest impact, though, may be in her quiet conversations with current and former players about their experiences with coaches whose behavior ranged from inappropriate to abusive to possibly unlawful, conversations like the one that began with an email from Clark on Feb. 7.Like Shriver, Clark, now 65, was a top junior player in the Washington, D.C., area in the 1960s and 1970s. Shriver remembered Clark as being older and better than she was but knew nothing about why her fledgling tennis career had fizzled largely before it began. Clark kept the reason to herself for more than 30 years before telling her husband in 2006.“I thought, ‘If I file it away, and lock the cabinet, and throw away the key, it will never bother me,’” Clark said. “But then my children got older and left home, and it just had more space.”In the summer of 1973, when she was 15, a coach with a budding reputation saw Clark play at a tennis camp and sought out her parents, offering to work with their daughter. Clark had already competed in some of the most competitive age-group tournaments. Working with an up-and-coming coach felt like an opportunity.The New York Times has not been able to speak with Clark’s former coach, despite calling his mobile phone and sending several messages to an email address, to his most recent place of employment and through social media.That fall, Clark said, the coach asked her to accompany him to an adult clinic he was holding at a resort in Charlottesville, Va., where her sister was in college. On the first night, Clark said, the coach took her to the hotel bar under the guise of meeting other participants from the clinic, but they weren’t there.Clark remembers him as giving her a glass of “something brown.” She remembers stumbling along a hallway and entering the coach’s room. The next thing she remembers is coming to on the bed. She was lying on her back with her tennis skirt around her knees, and he was wiping her stomach with tissues. The coach then drove Clark to her sister’s townhouse.“I woke up the next day thinking I can’t ever tell anyone about this,” she said.She continued training with the coach for several more months, until she could barely hold her racket without shaking and her game fell apart.Clark said that holding in for decades her story of sexual abuse “made me feel like I was going crazy.”Allison Dinner for The New York TimesLast April, when Shriver told her story on “The Tennis Podcast,” Clark was listening. In December, after successfully battling breast cancer, she began to craft an email, a draft of which stayed on her computer for two months before she sent it to Shriver, who responded 90 minutes later. They traded emails and had a video call a week later, during which Clark filled in the details. She did not file a complaint at the time and said she does not intend to now. She wanted to tell her story in hopes that it might encourage other women to tell theirs.“It made me feel like I was going crazy,” Clark said as she sat beside Shriver last week.Shriver said she had felt the same way during those five years when Candy was coaching her. Her lessons from that experience are at the heart of what she has tried to convey to people like Simon and Haggerty, offering ideas on better certifying coaches and requiring players to find another coach if they become romantically involved with a current one.She urged Haggerty to make the policing of abuse the third pillar of the federation’s independent enforcement arm, the International Tennis Integrity Association, alongside doping and corruption, including match fixing.A spokesman for the I.T.F. said Friday that the organization and its safeguarding team, which includes an investigator, was committed to working “with all survivors — including Pam — to ensure that their voices and opinions are incorporated.”Shriver was hoping the tour would move more quickly than it has been, with its current promise of having a new, clear code for behavior in 2024.“That is a whole year later than what I was told,” Shriver said, donning the agitator’s hat.A 16-year-old Shriver at the U.S. Open in New York in 1978.Dave Pickoff/Associated PressShe has, though, found her first meetings with Brandon encouraging. As Shriver sees it, tennis players have led among female athletes, having long ago gained equal pay in the biggest tournaments, as well as exposure that is far beyond what women in other sports have received.The tour’s ethical code for coaches already discourages intimate relationships between coaches and players and prohibits them for players younger than 18. Brandon wants to establish a basic code of minimum standards and rules as well as “an environment where people feel safe speaking up” and don’t need to fear retaliation.The WTA declined to say how many cases were currently on its docket.At times, Shriver’s conflicting roles can be at loggerheads. During the Australian Open, she condemned on Twitter the coach of Elena Rybakina, Stefano Vukov, for his aggressive and public criticism of Rybakina from the courtside coaching box. Her posts drew a rebuke from Rybakina, who defended Vukov. There was chatter that she violated an unwritten code — that coaches don’t publicly criticize rival coaches.Still, she said that so far the juggling act had proved worthwhile, at times for unexpected reasons.At a cafe on Friday morning, Bradley Polito, the father of a 7-year-old daughter named Madeleine who is hooked on the sport, approached to introduce himself and thanked Shriver for everything she had said.Polito explained that he had no background in sports. Shriver’s story, he said, opened his eyes and drove him to make sure his daughter had a female coach.“It’s almost like a North Star for us,” he said. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Tennis

      Serena Williams Willed Her Way to a Glorious Goodbye

      by

      Her last match — at the U.S. Open and probably of her career — was a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 years.It was match point, which Serena Williams had faced many times before. It was career point, which was startlingly new territory for one of the greatest athletes of any era.But Williams, on this night like no other at the U.S. Open, remained true to herself and her competitive spirit on Friday, with the end of her 27-year run as a professional tennis player suddenly becoming very real.Yes, Ajla Tomljanovic was about to serve for a place in the fourth round, at 40-30 with a 5-1 lead in the third set. But Williams, clearly weary after nearly three hours of corner-to-corner tennis, was not yet prepared to accept what looked inevitable.She saved one match point with a swinging backhand volley. She saved a second with a cocksure forehand approach that Tomljanovic could not handle. She saved a third with a clean forehand return winner that had fans in the sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium shouting: “Not yet! Not yet!”“I’ve been down before,” Williams said later. “I think in my career I’ve never given up. In matches, I don’t give up. Definitely wasn’t giving up tonight.”She saved a fourth match point. She saved a fifth, and by now it was clear, as the winners and bellows and clenched fists kept coming, that Williams would get a fitting finish.A record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title in her farewell tournament at age 40 was always going to be a long shot. An inspiring last dance was no guarantee, either, given all the matches and miles in her legs and all the rust on her game in recent weeks.But she salvaged it in New York. She conjured it with all of her pride, power and sheer will. She found a familiar gear in the second set of her opening-round victory over Danka Kovinic. And she stayed in that groove as she defeated the No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit in the next round before coming up against Tomljanovic, a tall and elegant baseliner who represents Australia but lives in Florida, and who was born and raised in Croatia.A capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium roared for Williams throughout Friday night’s match. Karsten Moran for The New York TimesBarring a major change of heart from her much more famous opponent, Tomljanovic will be the answer to the trivia question “Who was the last player to face Serena Williams in an official match?”But while Williams could not fend off the sixth career point, striking a low forehand into the net, she did strike a much more appropriate final note at Flushing Meadows than if she had chosen to forgo this final comeback.At last year’s Wimbledon, she retired with a leg injury before the first set of her first-round match was done, crying as she hobbled off the Center Court grass where she had won so often.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open was very likely the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Glorious Goodbye: Even as Serena Williams faced career point, she put on a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 years.The Magic Ends: Zoom into this composite photo to see details of Williams’s final moment on Ashe Stadium at this U.S. Open.Her Fans: We asked readers to share their memories of watching Williams play and the emotions that she stirred. There was no shortage of submissions.Sisterhood on the Court: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to each other’s.She was 39 then and took nearly another year to return to competition. But as the tears came for a different reason on Friday night on court in her post-match interview, and then again in her news conference, it was evident that she had gotten a measure of what she was searching for by returning to play.She gave herself a suitably grand stage to thank her fans and her family, including her parents, Richard Williams and Oracene Price, and her big sister, Venus Williams, who was watching from the players box just as she did when Serena won the family’s first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open in 1999. They went on to win 29 more, Serena finishing with 23 and Venus, though not yet retired, almost certainly finishing with the seven she has now.“I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus, so thank you, Venus,” Serena said. “She’s the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.”Though Williams was still struggling to use the word “retirement” herself on Friday, the WTA Tour was not as it congratulated Williams on a grand career. Nor did Williams give herself much wiggle room when asked what it might take to bring her back for more.“I’m not thinking about that; I always did love Australia, though,” she said with a smile, referring to the next Grand Slam tournament on the calendar: the Australian Open in January.But that sounded much more playful than serious, and she soon turned reflective, talking about motherhood and life away from competition, which she has already experienced at length during the coronavirus pandemic and in her latest year away from tennis.“It takes a lot of work to get here,” she said of the U.S. Open. “Clearly, I’m still capable. It takes a lot more than that. I’m ready to, like, be a mom, explore a different version of Serena. Technically, in the world, I’m still super young, so I want to have a little bit of a life while I’m still walking.”It is Williams’s call, of course (of course!), but it seems the right choice and the right time. Though she is correct that her level was often remarkably and surprisingly high this week, it is also true that the last time she lost this early in singles at the U.S. Open was in her first Open appearance in singles in 1998.Tomljanovic did herself proud on Friday, effectively countering Williams’s signature power and handling the deeply partisan and sometimes unsportsmanlike crowd with great composure and dignity. Fans cheered for Tomljanovic’s missed serves and errors, and with the match in its final stages, some shouted “Serena!” in the midst of her service motion.She said she borrowed a trick from Novak Djokovic, who won the 2015 U.S. Open men’s singles final against Roger Federer in a very pro-Federer atmosphere by, he said, imagining that they were cheering “Novak” instead of “Roger.”Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia proved a formidable challenger for Williams. She won the final six games of the match.Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times“I mean, I used that,” Tomljanovic said. “And I also, just, really blocked it out as much as I could. It did get to me a few times, internally. I didn’t take it personally because, I mean, I would be cheering for Serena, too, if I wasn’t playing her. But it was definitely not easy.”Tomljanovic gathered herself impressively after Williams seized the second set in a tiebreaker and then broke Tomljanovic’s serve in the opening game of the third set. Tomljanovic also graciously and respectfully hit all the right notes in her on-court interview, even though she had been reluctant to follow Williams to the microphone.“I have known Ajla since she was 12 years old, and I have never been prouder of her,” said Chris Evert, the former No. 1 who has been a mentor to Tomljanovic but watched the match from afar, in Aspen, Colo., where one of her sons was to be married on Saturday.Tomljanovic’s victory will certainly provide premium content for Netflix, which has been following her and several other players closely all season as it films the tennis version of “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” its behind-the-scenes automobile racing series.But Tomljanovic, who swept the last six games of what is almost certain to be Williams’s final match, is also an unseeded 29-year-old veteran who has never been ranked in the top 30 in the world and has yet to advance past the quarterfinals in a major tournament. That she had the tools to stand toe-to-toe with Williams and prevail is one more hint that Williams’s time at the top of the game has truly passed.What was also clear on Friday as the match extended well past two hours and into a third set was that Williams’s stamina and speed were fading. That is understandable with her lack of match play in recent months and in light of all the physical and emotional energy she was absorbing and expending with the public roaring her on. She also had played an intense doubles match the night before in Ashe Stadium, losing in two close sets with Venus.But understandable does not negate the reality that she looked late to the ball, and often nowhere near the ball, as Tomljanovic broke up baseline rallies by firing winners to break her for a 5-1 lead.It looked, just for a moment, as if Williams, one of the most ferocious competitors in tennis history, would have a sotto voce finish.Instead, she dug in and dug deep, drawing strength from past revivals and again showing no fear of swinging for the lines with a Grand Slam match at stake.Should we really have been surprised?As the points and great escapes piled up, Pam Shriver, the ESPN analyst sitting courtside, turned to those of us in the same row and said wide-eyed, “There should be a documentary just about this game.”Not a bad call, but perhaps better to make it the final act of a documentary about this week, when Williams shook off the rust for three final rounds and gave the crowds and all those who have followed her for nearly three decades, through triumphs and setbacks, an extended reminder of what made her great. More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in Tennis

      In Comebacks, Serena Williams Showed ‘You Can Never Underestimate Her’

      by

      Big moments on the biggest stages cemented Williams’s reputation as the queen of comebacks.During the 2012 U.S. Open final, Serena Williams was so close to losing that the idea of a comeback seemed out of the question.Her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, had gone up 5-3 in the final set, giving her numerous ways to put Williams away.“I was preparing my runners-up speech,” Williams said.Instead, she delivered what became a signature comeback of her career, breaking Azarenka’s serve twice and winning the championship without losing another game.The significance of that victory went beyond the title itself, as it turned around a year in which she had lost in the first round of the French Open. And as Williams comes close to retiring, that win illustrates how many fans will remember her tennis career — Williams coming back time and again under difficult circumstances.Here are some of the moments that helped Williams build that reputation.Australian Open, 2007Dean Treml/Agence France-Presse – Getty ImagesAfter struggling with a knee injury for much of 2006, Williams went into the 2007 Australian Open unseeded and ranked No. 81. But she went on to win the tournament, defeating Maria Sharapova.“She goes months without playing a match, loses in a tuneup and then runs the table,” Jon Wertheim, a Tennis Channel commentator and author, said.Pam Shriver, an ESPN tennis analyst, said that Williams entered the Australian Open that year in poor shape, but that by the end of the tournament, “she almost looked like a different player.”“That was one of the most memorable comebacks that I can remember that resulted in a major championship,” Shriver said.After the match, Sharapova said to the crowd in Rod Laver Arena that “you can never underestimate her as an opponent.”“I don’t think many of you expected her to be in the final, but I definitely did,” Sharapova said.2011 Health ScareChris Trotman/Getty ImagesIn February 2011, Williams was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism. Williams recovered in time to play Wimbledon, and later revealed the seriousness of her health scare.“I was literally on my deathbed at one point,” Williams said at the time. The circumstances, she said, changed her perspective, and she went into Wimbledon that year with “nothing to lose.”Serena Williams’s Farewell to TennisThe U.S. Open could be the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Decades of Greatness: Over 27 years, Serena Williams dominated generation after generation of opponents and changed the way women’s tennis is played, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing her reputation as the queen of comebacks.Is She the GOAT?: Proclaiming Williams the greatest women’s tennis player of all time is not a straightforward debate, our columnist writes.An Enduring Influence: From former and current players’ memories of a young Williams to the new fans she drew to tennis, Williams left a lasting impression.Her Fashion: Since she turned professional in 1995, Williams has used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.Williams made it to the round of 16. Then, she won her next two tournaments, the Bank of the West Classic in California and the Rogers Cup in Canada. She finished her year by reaching the U.S. Open final, where she lost to Samantha Stosur.“That comeback was unbelievable,” Shriver said. “No matter the score, no matter whatever, she still thought she could win.”2012 Summer RunDoug Mills/The New York TimesWilliams was eliminated from the 2012 Australian Open in the round of 16, and she was upset at that year’s French Open, where she was knocked out in the first round.“When she lost in the French Open in the first round, the career buzzards came circling,” Wertheim said. “There were plenty of times her career was supposed to be over, and she came back. The obvious one is 2012.”Williams responded to the losses by training under a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who went on to work with her for the next decade.And after that French Open, Williams went on a streak. She won Wimbledon before taking the gold medals in women’s singles and doubles at the London Olympics, and then she delivered her win against Azarenka at the U.S. Open, “playing some of the most inspiring tennis of her career,” Wertheim said.French Open, 2015Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesAt the French Open in 2015, Williams lost the first set of three consecutive matches. Each time, she came back to win in three sets.“Opponents were points away from eliminating her, and Serena simply refused to go off the court anything other than the winner,” Wertheim said.Williams went on to win the semifinal while dealing with a bout of the flu.The day after the semifinal, still sick, Williams said she briefly thought about withdrawing from the final.“Out of 10 — a 10 being like take me to the hospital — I went from like a 6 to a 12 in a matter of two hours,” she said at the time. “I was just miserable. I was literally in my bed shaking, and I was just shaking, and I just started thinking positive.”Williams won the final for her 20th major singles title.Pregnancy ComebackClive Mason/Getty ImagesIn 2017, Williams surprised the tennis world when she shared that she had won that year’s Australian Open while she was close to two months pregnant.Williams missed the rest of the 2017 tennis season, and had another major health scare after she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian. Williams was bedridden for her six weeks after she had blood clots in her lungs. Severe coughing caused her cesarean section wound to open. And doctors found a large hematoma, a collection of blood outside the blood vessels, in her abdomen.She returned to tennis in 2018, when she reached the Wimbledon final (where she lost to Angelique Kerber) and the U.S. Open final (where she lost to Naomi Osaka). The following year, she reached the Wimbledon final (losing to Simona Halep) and the U.S. Open final again (losing to Bianca Andreescu).“To have a child in the north half of your 30s and reach four major finals is an extraordinary feat that hasn’t gotten the full due,” Wertheim said.The Farewell ComebackHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesWilliams was forced to withdraw early in her first-round Wimbledon match last year because of an injury. She was given a standing ovation as she walked off the court in tears, as many began to wonder whether it would be the last time Williams would appear at the All England Club.She returned to Centre Court at Wimbledon this year but was defeated in the first round. She continued to struggle after that, losing early in the tournaments she has entered. At the National Bank Open in Toronto, Coco Gauff said that she was moved by how Williams has continued playing and “giving it her all.”“There’s nothing else she needs to give us in the game,” Gauff told reporters. “I just love that.”Williams will attempt one more comeback at this year’s U.S. Open. Along with her singles draw, she will also play in the women’s doubles tournament, partnered with her sister Venus. While we wait to see how this comeback takes shape, one certainty, Shriver said, is that Williams will be playing with the support of her fans.“The crowd is going to be crazy,” Shriver said. “I think the noise on a Serena win will be some of the loudest noise we’ve ever heard at the U.S. Open.” More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Tennis

      Her Tennis Coach Abused Her. Could the Sport Have Prevented It?

      by

      Adrienne Jensen does not know Pam Shriver, the 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion, but both believe tennis needs to change its approach toward predatory coaches.The grooming of Adrienne Jensen began with an invitation to train with a top junior tennis coach at a well-regarded tennis academy in suburban Kansas City in 2009.To Jensen, then a promising teenage player from Iowa City who had struggled to find elite training, the offer felt like the ultimate good fortune, even if accepting it meant upending her family’s life.Early on that fall, Jensen’s gamble seemed to be paying off as she trained with the coach, Rex Haultain, and played deeper into increasingly competitive tournaments.“I felt like he was my ticket,” Jensen, now 27 and about to begin a career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, said in a recent interview.Soon, though, the praise and attention turned into demands for nude pictures and secrecy, and eventually sexual assault. Haultain, a New Zealand citizen, took a plea deal in 2013 for soliciting child pornography from Jensen, who was 15. He was sent to federal prison without the need for Jensen to face him at trial. The F.B.I. said in announcing Haultain’s deal that the coach eventually molested Jensen. She detailed the abuse to prosecutors, supported the plea agreement and publicly shared extensive details of her experience in a series of interviews with The New York Times and in a 2020 federal lawsuit against the United States Tennis Association and the club that hosted Haultain’s business.Haultain was released in 2019 and deported. Matthew Hoppock, a lawyer for Haultain, declined to comment on his behalf.In the lawsuit, Jensen claimed the U.S.T.A. and KC Racquet Club in Merriam, Kan., did not live up to their duty to protect her from Haultain. The U.S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum dismissed the complaint this month on a technicality related to the statute of limitations without resolving the central issue, and Jensen and her lawyers are considering their next move.Still, the filing of the lawsuit revealed the U.S.T.A.’s longstanding resistance to taking more direct ownership of what many people involved at every major level of tennis said was a big problem: a poorly run system of certifying coaches and educating players about inappropriate and criminal behavior.Professional success in tennis often starts in a player’s teenage years. Unsupervised travel is common. Inappropriately close, sexual and, in some cases, abusive relationships between coaches and players have long been an accepted part of the sport. The U.S.T.A. lists 81 people involved with tennis who have been suspended or are ineligible because they have been convicted or accused of abuse. The list, which dates back many years, is widely viewed as the tip of the iceberg.“We are not doing enough as a sport,” said Pam Shriver, the 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion and a lead commentator for the Tennis Channel at the French Open, now underway in Paris.Shriver, 59, rocked the tennis world last month with her revelation that she had been involved in a sexual relationship with her longtime coach, Don Candy, that began when she was 17 and he was 50. Candy died in 2020. Shriver never told her mother, who died last year.Shriver long viewed her affair with Candy as a relationship between consenting adults. But with the help of therapy, she now says her experience was a form of abuse that is far too prevalent in the sport.“I should have, by 13, had some training,” Shriver said. “The coaches should all have to have training. There should not be meetings between coaches and young players in private settings or giving of gifts. No going out to dinner with just the coach and the player. Certain things have to be put into place.”Pam Shriver, the multiple Grand Slam champion, is working as a commentator at the French Open.James Hill for The New York TimesShriver’s disclosure has prompted the women’s professional tour, the WTA, to review its policies on relationships between players and members of their support staff, including coaches, trainers, physiotherapists, mental health professionals, coaches and managers. The tour will also augment its training in “safeguarding” athletes. “It is an ever growing area of concern,” Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA, said. “There is a lot more to be done.”The U.S.T.A., the national governing body for the sport, declined to comment on Jensen’s lawsuit because the recent ruling remains subject to appeal. It did not make any of its executives available to discuss its approach to coaching.The organization, unlike some other national governing bodies, has for decades eschewed the responsibility of certifying and educating coaches, even those participating at U.S.T.A.-sanctioned events. (Coaches who work directly for the organization are required to complete safeguarding training.) The strategy has allowed it to claim it is not responsible for the behavior of most tennis coaches.In court filings responding to Jensen’s lawsuit, the U.S.T.A. has claimed it is “wholly unrelated” to the two organizations that do certify professional tennis coaches in the United States, the United States Professional Tennis Association and the Professional Tennis Registry. However, the U.S.T.A. does accredit the organizations and mandate training requirements, such as a two-hour course on harassment and abuse and spotting warning signs of them that was added in 2021.Nothing stops someone who has not been certified from teaching and coaching tennis. With roughly five million new players in the past two years in the United States, tennis facilities have been scrambling to find capable coaches and instructors.“This is the most fundamental question we have as an industry,” said John Embree, the chief executive of the U.S.P.T.A. “In golf, would you ever be at a course where the pro is not certified? No. In tennis, there has been no requirement or mandate that says you have to be certified and also Safe Play trained, and that is not right.”Lauren Tracy, the director of strategic initiatives for the U.S.T.A., said in sworn testimony during the Jensen litigation that the U.S.T.A. had no notice of sexual abuse of any minor member before 2011. She also stated that, despite news coverage of Haultain’s conviction, the U.S.T.A. had no knowledge of his crime until 2019, six years after his arrest and sentencing and two years after his deportation order.In a sworn statement, Tracy said that in 2013, the U.S.T.A. terminated Haultain’s membership for nonpayment of dues, four years after Jensen’s ill-fated experience with him began.Jensen grew up as the third and youngest daughter of a physician and a stay-at-home mother who loved tennis and introduced it to their children. Jensen played a variety of team sports growing up, including soccer and basketball, but nothing made her happier than the independence and responsibility that came with an individual sport like tennis and the feel of the ball hitting the sweet spot on her strings.She also liked winning and did plenty of it, becoming one of the top players her age in the U.S.T.A.’s Missouri Valley section and earning entry into national competitions.Haultain initially befriended Jensen’s father, Fred, telling him how impressed he was with her play and establishing a rapport. Then, at a tournament at the Plaza Tennis Center in Kansas City, Mo., in July 2009, Haultain approached Jensen’s mother to offer a spot in his academy.“In a sense, he was grooming us, her parents,” Fred Jensen said in a recent interview. “He became my buddy, then moved on to my wife.”The training and travel to tournaments would cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. In addition, Jensen and her mother would have to rent an apartment in the area and live there during the week. Jensen, a top student who loved school and had a close-knit group of friends, would have to switch to online schooling so she could begin her five to six hours of daily training early in the afternoons.It was a lot to take on and give up, but Jensen craved the chance to become a top player.Her parents asked the parents of other children who played for Haultain what he was like. Everyone raved and told them how supportive, talented and trustworthy he was, Fred Jensen said. They told the Jensens they regularly let their children travel alone to tournaments with him. Hearing that, the Jensens agreed to let their daughter pursue her dream.Jensen in downtown Nashville.Diana King for The New York TimesIn August 2009, Jensen and her mother moved to Overland Park, Kan. She was on the court every day with top players and received so much private attention from Haultain that other parents began to comment on it to her and her mother, she said.Haultain asked for Jensen’s phone number so he could communicate with her directly and give her tips and encouragement when they were not on the court, she said. The night before a match at a tournament in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2009, a note from Haultain flashed on her phone telling her she would dismantle her opponent and enjoy doing it.Then the gifts started. Often they were trinkets from New Zealand. Then Haultain began whispering to Jensen on the side of the court that she was arousing him sexually. He followed his comments with demands for secrecy. If she told anyone about what he was saying, she might blow this singular chance for tennis success, he told her. He showed her pictures of his penis on his phone. He demanded that she send him nude pictures and allow their relationship to become physical.When she resisted his advances, he lashed out at her for her lack of commitment to him and to tennis.“I told him I just wanted him to be my tennis coach,” Jensen said. “I pleaded with him.”He banished her to outer courts at the academy and ignored her, only to lure her back with praise and the promise of what she could achieve if only she would do as he said and never tell. Jensen kept all of this secret, she said, fearing the shame and guilt she would feel if she told her mother what was happening and the whole life she had built for her came crashing down.She traveled to San Diego with her family for Christmas in 2010 and sat by the pool in silence, she said, her eyes locked on her phone as Haultain bombarded her all day with text messages filled with threats and demands.She could sense what was going to happen when she left her family to travel to Arizona alone to meet him at the U.S.T.A. National Winter Championships.Standing in her pajamas in front of the door of her hotel room, she was terrified as Haultain entered. She had been watching her favorite movie, “The Sound of Music.” She knew what he was going to do and felt powerless to stop it. Then, she detailed to prosecutors and in her lawsuit, he penetrated her with his hands.The next day, she could barely get a ball over the net during the tournament. He berated her and told her to move on from what had happened.She returned to San Diego broken. Days later, back in Kansas City, unable to sleep or eat or do schoolwork and dreading an upcoming trip with Haultain to a tournament in Portugal, Jensen answered yes when her oldest sister asked if her coach had abused her. Her sister then told her parents.Jensen immediately stopped training with Haultain. Her parents encouraged her to keep playing, to not let Haultain steal her love for the game. They were not aware of the full extent of the abuse because they had not pressed her for details. So they tried to minimize the trauma by dealing with it privately, she said.Fred Jensen now realizes what a terrible mistake that was, for his daughter and for the safety of other children. His instinct told him to protect his daughter’s anonymity, to try to, in his words, “coach her through it,” “engineer her return to normalcy” and save her from the blame and victimization that so many survivors of sexual assault experience. That was the exact opposite of what his daughter needed, which was disclosure, the involvement of the police and, ultimately, justice.“Predators count on that you are not going to pursue something like this,” he said.In the summer of 2010, however, Jensen told a teacher what Haultain had done to her. The teacher was obligated to inform the police, and he did.Jensen understands now that Haultain essentially brainwashed her, that he was very good at getting what he wanted, as so many predators are.“He used my qualities as a player, and as a person, against me,” she wrote in a recent email. She added: “I was an incredibly obedient, naïve, perfectionist, hard-driving and respectful young girl, and was so motivated to do well, especially given all that was on the line.”She would play again, including in college, which was always one of her dreams, but she wonders if some kind of intervention might have made things different. Could Haultain have done this to her if she had been taught about boundaries or if another coach had been trained to spot the warning signs?The one thing she knows is that no one ever tried. More