What happened to the only tennis player Donald Trump worked with?
US President Donald Trump had a short stint in tennis management and took care of just one player, who was nicknamed the ‘Britney Spears of tennis.’
Trump is known as one of the world’s most powerful men, now in his second term as US president. But he’s also connected to sports in many ways—like owning the New Jersey Generals football team and organizing big boxing matches. Interestingly, he also spent three years as a tennis agent, with only one client: a young player named Monique Viele.
Viele made her WTA debut when she was just under 15 years old, after a rule change allowed it. She had already won the Florida Open girls’ 18-and-under event at 13 and many other tournaments. Her family pushed hard to get her into professional tennis early, and they succeeded. Her dad, Rick, said she dreamed of being “the greatest the world has ever seen in tennis.”
Monique could serve at a fast 180 km/h and could also sing, performing the national anthem at baseball games. She had big potential and market appeal. She signed with the IMG agency when she was 9 and stayed with them until 1999. Top coaches like Nick Bollettieri and Rick Macci trained her, and then Trump got involved in 1999. He added her as the first athlete to his T Management company, which had mostly focused on models before.
As the book *Making Monique: The Promise and Peril of the President’s Prodigy* shares, Trump met her at his Mar-a-Lago resort. She played a kind of trial match against a 45-year-old businessman named Harold Mollin. Trump was betting with spectators and was happy when she won 6-4.
She then signed with Trump in New York, becoming his first sports client. She attended the US Open in the hospitality suite, and scored endorsement deals with Fila and Yonex, earning $2 million before even playing professionally.
Viele started her pro career at the 1999 Tokyo Princess Cup but lost 6–3, 6–1 to world No.69 Jane Chi in the first round. After the match, coach Macci reportedly told her she was “the biggest disappointment in the world.”
The pressure was huge. Viele struggled to play consistently and faced intense media attention, stalkers, and even death threats. She never won a WTA-level match and retired before turning 18. She earned just $7,215 in prize money, with her highest ranking reaching No. 817.
Viele later judged Miss Teen USA and took a break from tennis for four years, not telling people she used to play. Eventually, she came back to tennis as a coach. In an interview with L’Equipe, she said, “I never wanted to be at the center of all this commotion. It just happened… and very quickly. I was just a child.” She also said she feels “no regrets, no grudges,” but that tennis has learned a lot from stories like hers.
Now 41, Viele works in real estate in Idaho and still coaches tennis on the side.
Author Ben Rothenberg, who wrote the book about Viele, told The Times that Trump’s quick move to sign her shows his personality—he “bought into something shiny quickly because he thought it could sell, and his endorsement of it gave it further credibility.”