{"id":443427,"date":"2026-01-28T18:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/443427\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:11:13","slug":"pam-shriver-files-complaint-to-wta-against-tennis-coach-who-was-engaged-to-teen-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/443427\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Shriver files complaint to WTA against tennis coach who was engaged to teen player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The now 63-year-old has advocated for tennis\u2019 governing bodies to regulate the relationship between coaches and players to protect the interests, both professional and personal, of young women in her sport.<\/p>\n<p>Shriver posted on X in response to the Athletic article: \u201cWhen will pro tennis treat anti-abuse with [the] same seriousness, investment and conviction as anti-corruption and anti-doping? It\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Font de Mora has denied all allegations against him.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Pam Shriver says tennis can no longer accept relationships between players and their coaches. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ce8d894e8e0c8cd4964fbd50f3f90f001f70402e.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pam Shriver says tennis can no longer accept relationships between players and their coaches. Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n<p>The now 57-year-old coached American player Shaughnessy in the 1990s and early 2000s, starting when she was 13.<\/p>\n<p>She left home to move into his house, alongside other players, when she was 14 and he was 25, and they became engaged when she was 19.<\/p>\n<p>Font de Mora said that his relationship with Shaughnessy was platonic until she turned 18, but according to reports from Sports Illustrated magazine, Shaughnessy\u2019s parents had objected to her living with Font de Mora and that the family had become estranged as a result.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Peyton Stearns serves against Amanda Anisimova during the third round of the Australian Open. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4966f8ab6edd655f18a920759f55ef833cfd41bf.jpeg\" height=\"390\" width=\"584\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Peyton Stearns serves against Amanda Anisimova during the third round of the Australian Open. Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic reported that Shaughnessy had not alleged any wrongdoing by Font de Mora and declined to be interviewed beyond confirming that she and Font de Mora never married.<\/p>\n<p>According to The Athletic, at least two of Font de Mora\u2019s previous players have accused him of aggressive and manipulative behaviour, although the players were not named.<\/p>\n<p>Loading<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour questions are statements that are not true. I coordinate my training and sprints with professional trainers and biomechanist(s) and I am a very positive coach,\u201d Font de Mora told The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>The Athletic reported Stearns\u2019 representative, Enric Molina, communicated through tour representatives that Stearns did not wish to be asked specific questions about Font de Mora\u2019s behaviour and past relationships with players.<\/p>\n<p>The WTA said in a statement to this masthead that reports and investigations into alleged violations of its code of conduct and safeguarding code were confidential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the WTA receives such a report, it takes the matter seriously and follows its established rules and procedures in accordance with the WTA Safeguarding Code,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>This masthead attempted to contact Shriver for comment via her online channels, and was unable to reach Font de Mora via Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about the Australian Open:<\/p>\n<p>News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/link\/follow-20170101-p56jal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The now 63-year-old has advocated for tennis\u2019 governing bodies to regulate the relationship between coaches and players to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-443427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}