Hall of Fame tennis player Pam Shriver says she was in 'inappropriate, damaging' relationship with her coach when she was 17

ESPN tennis analyst Pam Shriver said Wednesday that she was in what she called «an inappropriate and damaging relationship with my much older coach» that began when she was 17 and lasted for five years.

Shriver, in an interview with ESPN's Outside the Lines as well as a first-person story and podcast with English publication The Telegraph, said she decided to talk about her relationship with coach Don Candy because «this still goes on — a lot.»

«I believe abusive coaching relationships are alarmingly common in sport as a whole,» she wrote in the Telegraph. My particular expertise, though, is in tennis, where I have witnessed dozens of instances in my four-and-a-bit decades as a player and commentator. Every time I hear about a player who is dating their coach, or I see a male physio working on a female body in the gym, it sets my alarm bells ringing."

Shriver began her professional career in 1978, at the age of 15. She traveled with Candy, who was her coach and chaperone. Shriver reached the finals of the 1978 US Open as an amateur, but never reached another title match in a Grand Slam.

She did win 21 times on the WTA tour in singles, and Shriver won 21 Grand Slam doubles titles between 1981-91, mostly with Martina Navratilova as her partner.

The relationship with Candy, who died in 2020 at age 91, began when Shriver was 17 and became sexual when she was 20, Shriver wrote.

«It was during a time that was a really difficult time for me to have my first relationship,» Shriver told Jeremy Schaap in an OTL interview. «It never should have been with my coach and. I've just realized that it's time to talk about my story and hopefully make it easier for some other people who've also had stories that are similar.»

Candy was 33