We tend to forget about professional tennis parents a lot of the time, just because so many of them fall into the category of ‘the worst’, but Romanian father and coach Lucien Surdeanu has deservedly caught the internet’s attention this weekend, thanks to his treatment of 16-year-old daughter Andrada Surdeanu.
The Sydney Morning Herald report that at a tournament in Israel, the rising tennis star was hit by her father and left with a bloody nose following an argument when she lost a quarter-finals game; worse, in speaking to the media after the fact, the youngster defended her dad’s actions, saying that she “deserved” the attack.
Mr Surdeanu was detained overnight and ordered to “cool off” following the altercation, and issued with a fine amounting to about AU $350. Allegedly, the coach had tried to confiscate his daughter’s phone as punishment, and slapped her when she refused.
“My father is not a beast, he didn’t break my nose; I didn’t have my face covered in blood,” Andrada later said in a Facebook post. “It’s true, he slapped me once. So what? I deserved it.”
“It was my fault because I’ve yelled and said some words to him. I was irresponsible after all the sacrifices he made for me. I admit that I was scared in that moment, but I know he regrets what he did and he loves me.”
“I’ve played tennis for 10 years, and I have the feeling that this episode is going to follow me for the rest of my life,” she continued. “Maybe I want to go to a tennis academy in the United States, to play there. But who will accept me if they know I was hit by my father?”
Pretty much everything about that sentence and the preceding ones is heartbreaking as hell. Surdeanu senior, a former air force pilot, now faces the prospect of being banned by the Romanian Tennis Fedaration, so at least that’s something.
Abusive tennis parents are nothing new. Aussie player Bernard Tomic‘s dad was banned from the Australian Open following an assault on French player Thomas Drouet, while Jelena Dokic has previously opened up about father Damir’s physical abuse.
If you are experiencing violence within the family, there are services you can access, including the National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Service.
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