In his secret life, Hewitt had begun exploiting his marquee name to build a career as a coach and to sexually abuse or harass some of the underage girls he trained, one of them just 10, according to a six-month Globe investigation that involved dozens of interviews both in the United States and in Hewitt’s South African homeland.
Hewitt’s alleged misconduct spanned nearly a decade, with his fame flourishing even as the number of victims, Conner among them, rose.
As the eyes of the tennis world turn this week to the US Open, where Hewitt won the 1977 doubles title, the sport’s leaders are publicly confronted for the first time with the accounts of women who say their lives were scarred and the game tarnished by a scandal that some in the tennis world knew or suspected, but which went unpunished.
The women, some seeking justice, others just hoping to heal, look at their experiences as a test case for the sport: How tennis will respond to allegations of the abuse of vulnerable junior players by a Hall of Fame champion.
Criminal prosecution may be out of reach, because so many years have passed, but the women say there is no statute of limitation on their pain.
“He destroyed me as a person,’’ said Suellen Sheehan, one of the four alleged victims who agreed to go public with accounts of their experience.
Hewitt, who declined to discuss the allegations, has never been charged with a crime, and it is difficult to confirm the women’s accounts.
But one of the accusers has filed a police report in Massachusetts. Independently, their stories paint the same or a similar picture.
And interviews with others in professional tennis circles showed that numerous individuals were aware of complaints by underage girls or their parents about Hewitt’s alleged abuse or harassment.
Sheehan said she was 10 in 1979 when Hewitt began making sexual advances toward her.
“I’ve been trying for the last 30-odd years to get my life back,’’ said Sheehan, 42, an office manager of the South African Golf Association. “I haven’t recovered yet.’’
