The WTA has started an ininvestigation into the Spanish coach Rafael Font de Mora after two former players on the circuit have denounced for “misconduct and inappropriate relationships” to the current coach of Peyton Stearns, 24, who lost in the third round of this Australian Open against Anisimova, 6-1 and 6-4.
The events would go back to the coach’s previous stage in the women’s circuit, as ‘The Athletic’ revealed exclusively. Several testimonies are anonymous – one of them, however, is from former player Pam Shriver – but they all indicate that they have now made these complaints on the occasion of the coach’s return to the circuit.
Shriver revealed Font de Mora’s relationship with a player, Meghann Shaughnessy, whom he coached in the 1990s. and the early 2000s in Arizona, since she was 13 years old. When he turned 14 (he was 25), Shaughnessy left his family home to go live with Font de Mota. At 19, they got engaged. Now Shriver, as reported by ‘The Athletic’, denounces that that relationship, which lasted five years, was “sexually and emotionally abusive.”
Font de Mora has stated that her relationship with Shaughnessy was platonic until she turned 18, but according to old reports, that player’s parents tried several times to remove the coach from his duties.
Another complaint for verbal and physical abuse
The second complaint, this one anonymous, is from a former player who reveals aggressive behavior, physically and verbally, towards her on the part of the person who was her coach, with insults and even some hits in the face with balls. A third player also claimed that Font de Mora exercised coercive control over her, limiting her contact with her family members.
Regarding these allegations, a WTA spokesperson told ‘The Athletic’ that “the reports and Investigations into alleged violations of the WTA Code of Conduct and Protection Code are confidential and not subject to public disclosure.”
