(08-05) 19:54 PDT MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --
A former tennis coach of Mark Philippoussis and Monica Seles was
imprisoned Friday for 3 1/2 years for sexually abusing a female
student at a Melbourne school 20 years ago.
Victorian County Court Judge Graeme Crossley ordered 48-year-old
Gavin Maxwell Hopper to serve at least two years and three months
before becoming eligible for parole.
Hopper was convicted earlier this week of three counts of indecent
assault and six of gross indecency.
His victim, now 33, told the court she had a three-year sexual
relationship with Hopper from January 1985, when she was 14.
Hopper pleaded innocent to the charges and denied the relationship
took place.
Judge Crossley said Hopper had shown "absolutely no remorse."
"As a trained teacher and as an educated man, you must have had some
understanding of the possible, perhaps even probable, consequences of
your actions, on the future emotional health of a young adolescent
girl," the judge said.
Hopper worked as a mathematics and physical education teacher at
Melbourne's Wesley College. He coached Seles in 1998, Philippoussis
from 1999 to early 2000 and Germany's Tommy Haas later in 2000.
Hopper now runs a tennis academy on the Gold Coast in Queensland
state with former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash.
Hopper's lawyers have said they will appeal his conviction.