Tennis great Pam Shriver criticizes the sport for failing to protect players after the Don Candy affair

Twenty-two-time Grand Slam champion Pam Shriver has criticized tennis for failing to protect female players from their older male coaches, something she knows better than anyone.

The 60-year-old doubles legend, who is now a noted coach and broadcaster, revealed last year that she had begun a five-year relationship with her coach Don Candy when he was 50 and she was 17.

At the time, she called on the WTA Tour authorities to better protect her players, both personally and professionally, and criticized the sport for not having improved much since then.

I don’t know if they [WTA] they’re all in now,’ said Shriver, who is at the Australian Open to train Croatian star Donna Vekic. Age.

“Having seen so many generations of players struggle with the same thing, I really want players to have more control over separating their personal lives from their professional lives.

‘I would like to see the four majors, which together have 12 important calendar weeks, step up and be better leaders in this. I think there are some real opportunities to make inroads.’

Shriver, who won seven Australian Open doubles titles in a fine 18-year career, revealed his relationship with Candy last year after a long period of reflection and therapy during Covid.

The American turned professional at just 15 years old and traveled with Candy, now deceased, who was her coach and companion.

She said the relationship had a huge impact on the rest of her life, and that authorities should never have allowed the married coach, who died in 2020 at age 91, to be with her.

Shriver said she shared her story in hopes current players don’t fall into the same trap.

“It never should have been with my coach and… I just realized it’s time to talk about my story and I hope it makes it easier for other people who have had similar stories as well,” he said. The Telegraph last year.

‘I still have mixed feelings about Don. Yeah, he and I got into a long and inappropriate affair. Yes, he was cheating on his wife.

“But there was a lot about him that was honest and authentic. And I loved him. Still, he was the adult here. He should have been the trusted adult.

‘In a different world, I would have found a way to keep things professional. Only after therapy did I start to feel a little less responsible. Now, finally, I have realized that what happened is his fault,” Shriver said.

The WTA has certainly tried to try to make sure the situation doesn’t repeat itself, though Shriver said the jury is still out.

American sports attorney Lindsay Brandon is now the tour’s director of safeguarding and is responsible for devising and implementing plans that help players and coaches maintain professional boundaries.

Tennis Australia has also launched an effort of its own, dubbed ‘A Safer Game Plan’, which educates coaches on how to protect minors. They also have a 24-hour telephone reporting service.

But is it enough?

Player-coach relations still continue.

Former Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova got engaged to her coach Jiri Vanek last year. He is 12 years older than her.

Ninth seed Veronika Kudermetova, who was recently knocked out in the second round, has been married to her coach, Sergey Demekhin, for five years.

The coach-player relationship began when she was 15 and he was almost 30.

Trainer Pierre Bouteyre has been accused of raping and sexually assaulting French star Fiona Ferro when she was between the ages of 15 and 18 and he was in his 40s.

He had been traveling with her on the WTA Tour, but says their ‘sexual relationship’ was consensual.

Candy, an Australian player-turned-coach who saw most of his success in doubles, winning the French Open in 1956, was 33 years Shriver’s senior when they were in a relationship.

It started when she was 17 and turned sexual when she was 20, and with the benefit of hindsight, Shriver now realizes she needed help.

“I really didn’t know where to go and wasn’t sure how to ask for help. And it really wasn’t until later, when the relationship ended, that I realized how much help I needed at that point,” he said. ESPN of the matter

“And it’s important that maybe I can feel like introducing myself and talking about my story in detail might help some young players.”

“Maybe it will help coaches understand not to cross that line.”

It was a revelation that shocked Candy’s family. The Australian’s portrait still hangs inside Kooyong, and Shriver said she waited until he and his own parents died before divulging details of the affair.

Two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka agrees with Shriver that it’s a problem affecting women’s tennis.

“We see these vulnerable young women being taken advantage of in different situations,” the WTA player council member said at the US Open last year.

It is clearly a matter of the utmost importance to Shriver.

She is a supporter of US President Joe Biden’s Women’s Sports Policy Task Force and an ambassador for Up2Us Sports, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting underserved youth by providing coaches trained in positive youth development.

For now, he will be attentive to all the players on the circuit. She knows the subtle signs of an inappropriate relationship, after all.

Shriver will be in the box at Melbourne Park on Monday when Vekic looks for a place in the quarterfinals when she takes on Linda Fruhvirtova at Margaret Court Arena.