Sexual abuse of younger feminine gamers by means of older male coaches occurs “right and left” at the WTA Tour and safeguarding towards it will have to be a concern, Victoria Azarenka stated at america Open on Saturday.
Azarenka’s remarks to journalists got here after Pierre Bouteyre, the previous trainer of French participant Fiona Ferro, used to be charged in France on Thursday with raping and sexually assaulting her when she used to be an adolescent between 2012 and 2015, in step with AFP.
Bouteyre’s legal professional advised AFP {that a} dating had passed off however denied any coercion. The legal professional stated the 50-year-old Bouteyre described the connection as “a true love story.”
Azarenka, who sits at the eight-person WTA gamers council, stated that fighting abuse used to be the crowd’s most sensible precedence.
“We see those vulnerable young ladies that (are) getting taken advantage of in different situations,” she stated.
“It’s really sad and really makes me emotional,” she stated. “If I had a daughter, I would have a question would she want to play tennis, that would be a very big concern in that way for me.”
Former primary Azarenka, who reached the event’s fourth spherical on Saturday, applauded Ferro for her bravery in talking out.
Ferro, 25, gained two WTA titles and reached as top as international quantity 39 ultimate yr however is recently ranked 259 and misplaced all the way through event qualifiers ultimate week.
“I hope this situation she’s gonna come out of it stronger and tennis is not ruined for her because of that,” Azarenka stated.
She implored reporters on the information convention to do their phase to show abuse. “Do the research, help people to open up more. Hopefully one by one try to eliminate those types of situations.”
Czech Karolina Pliskova, every other former international primary, used to be undecided if the ladies’s tennis frame may well be of a lot assist, pronouncing she felt it used to be the duty of fogeys to make sure that the abuse of gamers does now not occur.
Current international primary Iga Swiatek, 21, stated she had by no means confronted this type of scenario and used to be retaining the religion within the WTA.
“I hope that if something like that happens, we’re going to kind of be safe and have trust in WTA that they’re going to take care of this stuff properly,” the two-time French Open champion stated. “I’m sure they’re doing that.”
