What happened to the only tennis player Donald Trump managed
US President Donald Trump had a brief spell managing in tennis and managed a solitary star who was dubbed 'the Britney Spears of tennis'.
Trump is arguably the most powerful man in the world and in his second term as president of the United States.
But he is closely linked to sports in a number of different ways, including owning the New Jersey Generals and promoting big boxing events. However, he also worked as a tennis agent for three years and only had one client on his books in forgotten prodigy Monique Viele.
How did Donald Trump become involved in tennis after first athlete signing?
Viele made her WTA debut aged just 14 years 11 months after a rule change was made.
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She had won the Florida Open girls' 18-and-under event at 13 among many other tournaments and her family pushed for her to be fast-tracked into the professional game - ultimately being successful in doing so.
Her father, Rick, said her ambition was to be "the greatest the world has ever seen in tennis".
Not only could Viele serve at 180km/h, she could also sing and performed the national anthem at baseball games. With huge market appeal, Viele signed with IMG agency when she was 9 and stayed represented until 1999.
Top tennis coaches Nick Bollettieri and Rick Macci worked with the prospect Viele but then Trump got involved in 1999, adding a first athlete to his T Management company after it had focused primarily on modelling.
As recounted in the book, Making Monique: The Promise and Peril of the President’s Prodigy' - Trump met the teenager at his Mar-a-Lago resort and she was placed in a trial game of sorts against Harold Mollin, a 45-year-old businessman.
Trump had been betting with those watching and was delighted when she won 6-4.
She then signed on the dotted line in New York, the first sportsperson to be represented by Trump. She attended the US Open in his Arthur Ashe Stadium hospitality suite and bagged endorsement deals with Fila and Yonex to make $2million in earnings before she had hit a ball professionally.
What happened to Monique Viele in her tennis career?
Viele's professional career began at the 1999 Tokyo Princess Cup, losing to 6–3, 6–1 to world No.69 Jane Chi in a 80-minute first round match.
Aftewards, Viele claimed that Macci, one of the most coveted coached around, lost it and told her she "was the biggest disappointment in the world".
The hype ultimately proved to be much and Viele struggled for consistency on the court. She also had to deal with an innate level of media attention, stalkers and even death threats.
She never won a WTA-level professional match and retired in 2002 prior to her 18th birthday, making just $7,215 in career prizer and her highest world ranking being No. 817.
Viele, who judges Miss Teen USA, put the racket away for four years and did not tell people she was a tennis player.
Eventually she returned to the sport as a coach. But in an interview with L'Equipe, she admitted: “I never wanted to be at the centre of all this commotion. It just happened… and very quickly. I was just a child.”
She did also said she was left with "no regrets, no grudges" but that the sport "has learned a lot from trajectories like mine".
Now 41, Viele works in real estate in Idaho but is also still a tennis coach.
Ben Rothenberg, who wrote the book on Viele, told The Times that Trump's move summed up his character as he "bought into something shiny quickly because he thought it could sell, and his endorsement of it gave it further credibility".
Topics: Donald Trump, Tennis
Josh Lawless