Tennis coach investigated for alleged inappropriate relationship with 13-year-old player before getting engaged to her at 19

The WTA is investigating complaints made against a Tennis coach for a purported inappropriate relationship with a female player and bullying behaviour.

According to The Athletic, two former players have lodged complaints against Spanish coach Rafael Font de Mora to the WTA’s safeguarding team.

One of those players is 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion Pam Shriver, while the other remains anonymous.

This comes weeks after Font de Mora joined the team of American Peyton Stears.

Shriver’s complaint is primarily with regard to Font de Mora’s relationship with Meghann Shaughnessy, who he coached in the 1990s and 2000s, from when she was aged 13, then became engaged to when she was 19, although they never married.

Shaughnessy left her family home to live in Font de Mora’s house with other tennis players when she was 14, and he was 25.

Font de Mora insists their relationship only became romantic when the player was 18, although reports at the time said Shaughnessy’s parents twice tried to remove her from his coaching group.

The other complaint raised against him is from a player he previously coached, who alleges that he displayed aggressive and verbally abusive behaviour towards her, such as swearing in her face and whacking tennis balls in her direction.

Stearns was asked if she knew about her new coach’s history and replied: ‘Yeah, I mean, it’s been around, but, I think right now, just not really going to dive into that, no comment.’