Tennis: Selima Sfar accuses her former trainer of rape

In a statement to L’Equipe magazine, former Tunisian tennis player Selima Sfar confessed to being raped at the age of 12 by her former French tennis coach Régis De Camaret.

“When I was 12 and a half, I was abused by Régis de Camaret. Nobody knows my story,” states Selima Sfar.

“I took a long time to free myself. It’s a great trauma. When that happens, you tell to yourself: ‘I sacrificed everything for this, I have to get there.’ I worked like crazy. All my life I thought I was weak, cowardly, and useless. Until I understand. Today, at 46, I can talk because I have worked a lot on myself and been assisted. The shame is gone. When I cry, it’s emotion. These are not the same tears. Shame turned to pride. I am proud of what I have become”, we read in the columns of the Franceinfo site.

Selima Sfar began tennis at an early age at the Tennis Club of Carthage. At 13, she left Tunisia, her country, to train in France alongside Nathalie Tauziat and Régis de Camaret. As a junior, she won the Arab Junior Singles in 1992 and reached the quarter-finals of the junior tournament at Roland-Garros. In 1994, she was the African junior champion.

She turned professional in 1999, at the age of 22. In 2000, she qualified at the US Open to be the first Tunisian to reach such a performance. In 2001, her most notable season, Selima Sfar played three of the four Grand Slam events (apart from the Australian Open), advancing to the second round each time.

On July 16, 2001, she climbed to 75th place in the world. She repeated the same results at Wimbledon in 2002 and 2005 and at Roland-Garros in 2008. In doubles, she earned her best performance by playing in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2008 alongside the Russian Ekaterina Makarova and reaching 47th place worldwide a few weeks later.