4) Peter Graf – Steffi Graf’s father taught her how to play tennis at the age of three, and she quickly became an on-court phenomena. The German turned professional at the age of 14, and from that time her father tightly controlled her tournament and practice schedule, as well as her finances.
Over the years, he earned the nickname “Papa Merciless” because of how hard he pushed his daughter. When they traveled, Peter reportedly made Steffi hit the practice court immediately after disembarking from the plane, and his demand for success and the cash that comes along with it was high.
Then, in 1995, Peter was arrested for income tax evasion. Authorities raided their home in Mannheim, Germany in search of evidence, and Steffi was interviewed for eight hours about the situation. To his credit, Peter vehemently stated that his daughter was not involved, and the investigation against her was dropped. But Peter was convicted, and was in prison until 1998.
For the next two years, Steffi constantly fielded questions from the press about the trial. Yet despite the unpleasant off-court distraction, the German still won six Grand Slam titles.
3) Marinko Lucic – Mirjana Lucic was nothing short of a child prodigy. The Croatian set several “youngest-ever” records, as she won the Australian Open women’s title as a 15 year old. She also made the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1998 and reached a career high of No. 32, and looked poised for a great career until she disappeared from the game in 2003.
What happened? Her father, Marinko, who was named as the worst tennis dad ever in a British newspaper poll in 2003. In a 2006 interview with the New York Daily news, Mirjana said her father was physically and verbally abusive, saying that Marinko started hitting her when she was five.
The abuse continued until 1998, when Mirjana and her mother left their Zagreb apartment after a particularly unpleasant incident. She said they then ran into Goran Ivanesivic, who let the pair stay in his home for three days.
On July 4, 1998, Mirjana’s family, minus Marinko, fled from Zagreb to a hideout in the country, where they stayed until they were granted political asylum elsewhere. Her father reportedly took all but $23,000 of the money she earned on the tour, and her career has since been stalled because of a lack of funds.
Mirjana is back on the tour though, and she is ranked within the top 120.
2) Jim Pierce – In 1993, Sports Illustrated featured a cover story named “Why Mary Pierce Fears For Her Life.” When Mary turned pro in 1989, she was known just as much for her talent as she was for her father’s behavior.
In the cover story, the Frenchwoman admits that her father hit her, and he was also known to be verbally abusive. The Women’s Tennis Council banned Jim from attending any tour tournaments at the 1993 French Open after he choked her cousin and screamed at her during a match.
She successfully filed for a restraining order in 1993, but that didn’t stop her father from turning up at her tournaments. A few weeks after she filed for the restraining order, he got into a fight with her bodyguard outside of her hotel room in Italy. Photos of him were also distributed to security guards at tournaments.
All of this prompted the WTA to pass the Jim Pierce rule, which prohibits abusive behavior on the tour.
Since then, they have apparently reconciled.
1) Damir Dokic – Damir Dokic really takes the cake here. He was verbally and physically abusive, he is indefiniately banned from all WTA Tour events, and he spent time in jail for threatening the life of the Australian ambassador to Belgrade.
Dokic has a long list of incidents at tournaments. He was removed from Wimbledon in 2000 after he smashed a journalist’s phone, and he was thrown out of the US Open later that year for being abusive to the staff.
In July of 2009 he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for threatening the Australian ambassador, for causing public endangerment and for illegal possession of weapons. All because he wanted the ambassador to force Australian newspapers to stop publishing stories about his alleged abuse.
All of these incidents have lead to the father and daughter becoming estranged over the years, although they’ve also recently reconciled their relationship.