Jury awards $9M in damages to tennis player Kylie McKenzie in sexual assault case

CNN — A jury has awarded $9 million in damages to a tennis player after a court ruled that the United States Tennis Association (USTA) failed to protect her from being sexually assaulted by a coach.

Kylie McKenzie, a 25-year-old American tennis player, filed her lawsuit in March 2022 in the US District Court in Orlando, Florida, suing the USTA and USTA Player Development Incorporated while alleging her former coach, Anibal Aranda – who had been employed by the organization at the time – “committed sexual assault and battery” against her.

McKenzie and her lawyers also accused the USTA of “gross negligence” by “employing but yet failing to properly supervise Coach Aranda despite his known history of sexual predation was so reckless or wanting in care that it constituted a conscious disregard or indifference to the life, safety, or rights of” McKenzie.