"No, it can't happen" - Pam Shriver urges WTA & all 4 Grand Slams to join hands in the fight against sexual relationships between players and coaches

Pam Shriver has called for an end to the toxic culture of sexual relationships between female players and their coaches. The American tennis great feels that players sleeping with coaches has been a common occurrence on tour due to widespread acceptance of the issue, and putting a stop to the same should be a priority for the WTA and Grand Slam tournaments.

Shriver, 60, came out with her own personal experience of a toxic player-coach equation when she revealed last year that she was in a five-year-long 'inappropriate' relationship with former coach Don Candy, which started when she was only 17 and Candy was 50.

Since her heartfelt interview, in which she clarified that there was no sexual abuse but a great deal of emotional trauma in the relationship, Shriver has spread awareness on the matter and called for better protection of female athletes who go through a similar experience but choose to remain silent.

She hopes to see players have more liberty to be able to separate personal and professional relationships.

“Having seen so many generations of women players struggle with the same thing, I really want women players to have more agency over the separation of their personal life from their professional life," Pam Shriver told The Age.

The 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion feels easy acceptance is the root cause for players still suffering from the issue, urging everyone involved to act on the same.

"There has been such an acceptance that this happens. That has to switch to ‘no, it can’t happen’," Shriver declared.

Stressing the need for more awareness, education, and safeguarding against the matter at all levels of the sport, Shriver also called upon the organizers and authorities involved in the four Grand Slam tournaments - the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open - to also take the lead on the issue.

"I would like see the four majors, which together have 12 important weeks of the calendar, to step up and be better leaders on this thing," she stated. "I think there are some real opportunities to make inroads."

"It affected everything" - Pam Shriver on her relationship with Australian Open Don Candy

Pam Shriver's (2nd right) relationship with Don Candy started when she was 17 years old.

Reflecting on her relationship with Candy, Pam Shriver said that it all began when she was already going through an "incredibly confusing" experience of adjusting to the demands and needs of the professional tennis tour. While she did not quite realize how the 'inappropriate relationship' impacted her emotionally at the time, the realization hit her a lot more as she grew older and saw how it impacted all her relationships.

"It was an incredibly confusing time for me as a young person trying to navigate my way as a pro," Pam Shriver admitted. "As I got older, I realised how it changed my pattern in relationships. It affected everything."

Shriver reiterated that she chose not to identify her relationship with Candy as sexual misconduct, but highlighted that it was indeed a case of abuse of power from a much older coach.

"Even when I told my story, 40 years later, I didn’t identify that it was sexual abuse; an older coach in a trusted position with an imbalance of power," the American added.