TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — A tennis player alleges in a lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association that the governing body for the sport failed to protect her from a coach who she says sexually abused her at one of its training centers when she was 19.
Kylie McKenzie alleged coach Anibal Aranda touched her vagina after a practice in November 2018 at the USTA's training center in Orlando, Florida. Before touching her, Aranda, then 34, told McKenzie she was beautiful and asked questions about her body, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in central Florida.
In earlier encounters, McKenzie alleges Aranda touched her stomach and waist when talking about her weight, tried to intertwine his arm with her extended arm while she held a phone, and pressed his body against her back side and grabbed her hips under the guise of instructing her on technique in her serve.
At a news conference in Tempe, Arizona, on Tuesday, McKenzie tearfully told reporters that the sexual abuse had negatively affected her confidence and self-esteem and that the anxiety she felt from the abuse consumed her on the tennis court in 2019 and 2020. "It has been damaging to me as a person and as a player," McKenzie said.
The Associated Press generally doesn't name alleged sexual assault victims, but McKenzie agreed to let her identity be known in news coverage about her lawsuit.