A former Florida tennis coach and the grandson of tennis player Bobby Riggs has been sentenced after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors he coached.
Daniel James Riggs, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian on Thursday, March 12, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida.
According to the district attorney’s office, Daniel worked as a tennis coach for Team Riggs at a Fort Lauderdale tennis center, and the two minors involved in the case had been his students.
One of the students was 15 when he began teaching her in 2020, according to local media outlet WPLG, which cited a federal criminal complaint. Another was identified through social media records as a 16-year-old girl, per the outlet.
“[He] used multiple social media accounts to communicate with the victims and engage them in sexually explicit conversations,” the district attorney’s office said, adding that the interactions occurred between 2021 and Daniel’s arrest in late 2024.
Daniel also requested child sexual abuse material from one of the minors through a social media app, according to a separate 2024 press release from the district attorney detailing his arrest. He created “multiple anonymous profiles” and “advised” the teen to “delete their communications,” per the 2024 release.
Law enforcement identified “several social media accounts” used by the 33-year-old through subscriber and billing records that he had been using to contact the minors, the district attorney’s office said in their latest release.
The D.A.’s office also alleged in the release related to Daniel’s arrest that he “sexually abused” one of the minors “while they traveled internationally, and domestically for tennis training and tournaments” and in Florida.
Daniel pleaded guilty to two counts of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, the D.A.’s office said. Under his plea deal, he will also be required to be registered as a sex offender after his release from prison, per WPLG.
“Children and parents trust coaches with more than athletic instruction. They trust them with safety, guidance, and character,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a release.
“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. The Southern District of Florida will continue to pursue predators who target children and ensure they face the full weight of the law,” he added.
Daniel is the son of late tennis pro Bobby’s eldest child, Larry. Bobby, who died in 1995 at 77 years old, was famously known for his “Battle of the Sexes” match against tennis legend Billie Jean King in 1973, which later became a movie starring Steve Carell and Emma Stone.
Bobby once held the No. 1 rank in the world as a tennis player and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967.