France, Feb. 14 -- Lawyers acting forJean-Pierre Dartevelle, a former vice-president of the French Tennis Federation, are expected to lodge on appeal on Friday against his 10-year jail sentence for raping an ex-player almost 50 years his junior.

Dartevelle, 74, was found guilty on Thursday at the criminal court in Doubs, eastern France, of the sexual assaults between September 2016 and March 2018 when the victim was aged between 17 and 19.

"The civil party that I am representing and assisting has been recognised as a victim, and that is the most important thing for her," said the woman's lawyer, Benjamin Liautaud.

"As far as my client is concerned, moral duress has been recognised and punished."

Dartevelle, a dentist with a surgery in...