When Serbian Damir Dokic threatened during this year's Australian Open to drop a nuclear bomb on Sydney and kill an Australian citizen in retaliation for his daughter Jelena's decision to play as an Australian again, it wasn't difficult to see why tennis dads are often considered the most notorious of sporting parents.

The unsavoury reputation probably started with Jim Pierce, the ex-convict father of Mary. After years of emotional and allegedly physical abuse, she took out a restraining order against him in 1993.

His rage was often a public spectacle and on one famous occasion he aimed his fury (and a can of soft drink) at her opponent, shouting: "Go on, Mary, kill the bitch!"

He was banned from all women's tour events after he verbally abused a spectator at the 1993 French Open, and the incident prompted the Women's Tennis Association to pass a new law prohibiting abusive conduct on the part of players, coaches or relatives.

Parental obsession with the sporting success of a child is not uncommon but rarely does it reach the monstrous proportions it did with Frenchman Christophe Fauviau.

The retired army colonel had admitted drugging some of his children's tennis rivals and last month he was given an eight-year jail sentence after being convicted of manslaughter.

Fauviau admitted that he spiked the water bottle of one of his son Maxime's rivals at a local tournament in south-western France in 2003.

The victim, Alexandre Lagardere, a 25-year-old teacher, abandoned the match and fell asleep at the wheel driving home. He died in the ensuing crash.

Fauviau's case will come to symbolise the excesses of parents who attempt to push their children towards tennis super-stardom.

An ex-helicopter instructor, he had devoted his early retirement to promoting the careers of Maxime and Valentine.

At the time of Fauviau's arrest, Maxime, 16, was competing on the lower rungs of the International Tennis Federation world junior circuit and Valentine was regarded as one of the most promising 13-year-olds in France. Now 15, she continues to train at a tennis academy but has not made the breakthrough.

The rewards for success on the world stage are astronomical but the stakes are so high that the pressure can filter down to local level, too.

While the vast majority of tennis parents are normal, almost every tournament will have a 'bad dad' or 'mad mum' who is quick to react to perceived slights in their beloved's matches and who usually skulk around the court muttering tactical instructions or intimidating their offspring's opponents.

It is the norm for junior matches at local and regional level to be played without an umpire and this can pave the way for parental interference.

I have seen many examples over the years. I even knew one player whose parents kicked their dog when the opponent missed the first serve. The dog duly began to bark, increasing the chances of a double fault.

Then there are the courtside parents who try to upset their kid's opponents by showing disapproval over line calls - violent head-shaking, name-calling and extra loud cries of "well, well, well". I have seen some parents go on court and take their children's opponents - some only nine or 10 - to task.

One parent I knew used to disappear into the changing rooms under the pretext of filling the player's water bottle but would bring it back with notes taped on the side giving a new set of tactics.

And there are many who devise elaborate sets of hand signals to achieve the same goal of illegal coaching during the match.

The best was the parent who pretended to be reading the newspaper but had cut out two eyeholes and had felt-tipped "hit to the backhand" across the back page.

When my sons, Andy and Jamie, played abroad in junior events it was regular for the parents of their opponents to issue instructions during matches.

Because the parents were speaking in a foreign language it was impossible to know what they were saying and when the umpire spotted them they would smile sweetly and claim they were reminding their children of the score.

In Britain, I remember one father being particularly incensed at his son's defeat in the national championships. He was convinced his little treasure had been cheated out of the match so put the opponent's racket-bag and kit-bag in a shower cubicle and switching on the water.

A mum falsified her son's date of birth on entry forms so that he could enter a younger age group. This caught up with her when the son was selected to play for England at under-14 level and his real birth date was discovered on his passport. She tried to justify her actions by claiming that "he was very small for his age and it wasn't fair that he had to play against much bigger boys".

There is evidence of physical abuse, too. At this year's unofficial world under-14 championships in Tarbes, France, a coach reported a parent for kicking his daughter and holding her up by the throat after a poor performance.

The event is generally regarded as a launching pad for young tennis players - former champions include Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet - and agents from the major management companies and sports goods manufacturers are out in force.

A good showing here can open a lot of doors and it may be that this particular parent was focused on the financial opportunities rather than the long-term development of his daughter's game.

Pushy parents exist in every sport but there is a fine line between pushing too much and not enough.

There are many examples of successful parent-player relationships in world-class tennis, including those of top teenagers Maria Sharapova, Nicole Vaidisova and Michaella Krajicek.

Monica Seles was carefully tutored by her cartoonist father throughout her career, while Martina Hingis had the benefit of a top coach in her mother.

Most tennis parents are perfectly reasonable people willing to make sacrifices to give their child the best opportunities.

But there are those who get too involved - perhaps living their own dreams and fulfilling their own needs through their child - and the danger then is that the child may reject both the sport and the parent when they want to show their independence in adolescence. Jennifer Capriati springs to mind.

From the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/04/04/stjudy04.xml