Parents reducing women's tennis protégées to tears

The multi-million dollar rewards at the top of women's tennis are taking a devastating toll on the health of young aspirants, claims a British sports psychologist.

"These girls have been in a motivational climate, driven and controlled by their parents from a very early age. Their reward system is based entirely on winning," says Dr Jim McKenna, of Bristol University. "This means that every time they go out on court their identity is under threat."

The threat of losing often suffices to undermine even trying, he says: "It bears all the hallmarks of clinical depression."

Dr McKenna's assessment comes just a week away from Wimbledon, when attention will turn again to the world's great women's players ­ such as Jennifer Capriati, who was arrested for shoplifting and drug use as a teenager, and Martina Hingis, thought to have earned an estimated £7m last year but who at one stage split from her mother.

The women's game is dominated by Venus and Serena Williams, whose father Richard has been in trouble with the authorities on a number of occasions ­ for everything from distracting opponents to accusations of match-fixing.

The psychological results of these pressures are illustrated in a television documentary this week. The cameras are treated to tears and tantrums as they follow players such as Anna Kournikova and Magdalena Maleeva across Europe. The girls' routines revolve around a treadmill of tournaments, a ruthless ranking system, demanding sponsors and a constant tug of war between performance on the court and image off it ­ and of course their parents.

Maleeva, 27, is returning to the tour after an injury which kept her out for two years. She suffered overbearing parental influence and expectation.

"I was pushed by my mother very, very hard," she reflects. "This is of course why I became I good player, why I was in the top 10 and why I won so many tournaments. But it was tough to have a mother who didn't give me any choice other than tennis in my life."

Her mother Julia, herself Bulgarian champion nine times, put all three of her daughters on a tough training programme from a very young age. "Winning isn't everything ­ it's the only thing," she says, pointing proudly to a picture of her winning her eighth national title, less than three months after giving birth to Magdalena.

The Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is no stranger to parental ambition. "It was never really my dream to be a tennis player," she says. "My dad started me. Once you get older you realise what's going on."

As the British coach Alan Jones says, "There are massive graveyards of child prodigies at 12 or 13 who don't make it. I just hope that they're sane and enjoying it somewhere."

'Girls on Tour', Channel 4, Tuesday, 9.00pm.