Andrea Jaeger: The dark truth behind a tennis star’s burnout

For almost 40 years, Andrea Jaeger has found it easier to conceal her trauma than to keep reliving it, let alone become a poster child for abuse or be seen as “a victim or broken”. She has never viewed herself like that, not when she was a teenage prodigy taking tennis by storm, nor as an adult who has dedicated her life to giving children a sense of the joy that was stolen from her. To do that would be to let those who betrayed their authority win, and what propelled Jaeger to fame was a fierce hatred of losing.

The record books show that she reached five grand slam semi-finals and a Wimbledon final before she turned 18 and was ranked as high as No 2 in the world. Jaeger beat the likes of Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Tracy Austin, earned millions as the popularity of women’s tennis exploded in the 1980s, and was a household name across the world before she learnt how to drive to the end of her road.

But her legacy now is that of a rising star who burnt out prematurely, for whom early success became the catalyst for injury and uneven temperament. That remained Jaeger’s story because she wasn’t yet ready to discuss the WTA staff member who persistently sexually harassed her in the locker room, eventually forcing Jaeger to take refuge in portable toilets at major tournaments. Nor was she prepared to describe the time she was unknowingly served alcohol while still underage before a different staff member drove her home and attempted to kiss her on her doorstep. But there is a part of Jaeger that has always wanted to set the record straight, so people would understand the difference between burning out and having the light drained from something you love.

“My story was that she couldn’t handle the