Former tennis prodigy Kylie McKenzie awarded $9 million in sexual assault lawsuit against USTA

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Once a tennis prodigy, Kylie McKenzie is being awarded $9 million in a federal lawsuit against the United States Tennis Association, where she claimed the organization did not protect her from being sexually assaulted by her former coach at a training facility in Florida in 2018, per The Athletic. 

Anibal Aranda, then 34 years old, was McKenzie’s coach when she was a 19-year-old prodigy out of Arizona. McKenzie claimed in a 2022 lawsuit that Aranda had assaulted her on a back court at the USTA’s Orlando training facility. 

McKenzie stated the USTA failed to disclose that Aranda assaulted a former employee years before her own assault. 

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Kylie Mckenzie returns a shot during the ITF World Tennis Tour W50 Sao Paulo at Clube Hipico de Santo Amaro on March 27, 2024, in Brazil. (Buda Mendes/Getty Images for ITF)

McKenzie’s lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Center for SafeSport found Aranda "more likely than not" touched her vagina over her clothes and groped her during the process of showing her a serving technique in 2018, per The New York Times. 

Since the assault, McKenzie said she suffers from panic attacks, anxiety and depression.

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McKenzie was awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $6 million in punitive damages after a jury determined "there was a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others, given in part attempts by the USTA to keep McKenzie’s case quiet," per The Athletic. 

"I feel validated," McKenzie, who is still trying to pursue a career in tennis, told The Athletic on Monday.