Bobby Riggs’ grandson sentenced for sexually abusing teenage tennis players he coached
The grandson of tennis celebrity Bobby Riggs has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for two counts of coercing and enticing teenage female tennis players, who trained at his family’s training program at the Lauderdale Tennis Club in Florida, to engage in sexual activity. According to the criminal complaint, Daniel James Riggs, a 33–year-old resident of Pompano Beach, Fla. , engaged in sexual acts with the first teenage girl from 2021 to 2024.
That victim was 15 when it began. Riggs also engaged in sexual acts with another teenage girl, which law enforcement officials learned of in the fall of 2024 after subpoenaing one of Riggs’ social media accounts. The second girl was 16 at the time.
Riggs had made five Snapchat accounts for the purpose of communicating with the first victim and receiving explicit videos from her. While reviewing those accounts, officials found conversations with the second victim, which were of a sexual nature and, the complaint said, showed that she and Riggs “were engaged in a sexual relationship. ” “Children and parents trust coaches with more than athletic instruction.
They trust them with safety, guidance, and character,” said U. S. Attorney Jason A.
Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. “This defendant abused that trust in the most disturbing way imaginable, using his position to groom and sexually exploit the very students he was supposed to mentor. Twenty years in federal prison reflects the seriousness of that betrayal.