Jelena Dokic

[In-Cyde #1]

Source The Age Nov 30. - Jelena Dokic will return to Australia this weekend desperate to resurrect her fractured career. The 22-year-old dual passport holder has decided to turn her back on her birthplace of Serbia - and more particularly her bullish father Damir - and realign herself with Australia after enduring a nightmare 2005 season in which the former world No.4 plummeted outside the top 450 and earned a paltry $US14,521. She is currently ranked 349th in the world, but hopeful of scaling the heights once more.

I hope that her possible wildcard entry into the Australian Open is not at the expense of another young Australian Player (she is ranked 349th afterll) and I also hope that if given a wildcard that it is not Tennis Australia trying to get a 'gimmick' into their comp. Bad Taste me thinks.

[Steelers]

Good to see her finally get away from her 'crazy' father

[In-Cyde #1]

Good to see her finally get away from her 'crazy' father

Couldn't agree more, he was a pig of a man.

[Steelers]

Source: www.foxsports.com.au



Dokic, 22, will return to Australia on Saturday, intent on rebuilding a shattered career away from her dominating father Damir.

The former world No.4, now languishing at No.349, wants to contest the Australian Open in January as an Australian.

Dokic will leave Zagreb in Croatia on Friday to forge a fresh start to a broken career - and life - after turning her back on Australia four years ago.

Despite playing Fed Cup last year for Serbia and Montenegro, Belgrade-born Dokic insists her loyalties are with her adopted country.

Under International Tennis Federation regulations, Dokic is free to play under the Australian flag at grand slams and other tournaments.

"I am an Australian, I feel like an Australian and I want to play for Australia again,'' she said yesterday.

"Australia is such a great country. The people are amazing.

"I had tremendous support from a lot of people, I loved playing Fed Cup, it was a great experience for me. I got along with everyone.

"I never got rid of my Australian nationality. I'm ready to be Australian again - there would be no point going back if I didn't feel Australian.

"I made a really good connection with so many people when I was at Tennis Australia and I'd like to have that feeling again.

"This is not any easy step to take for either side and I don't know what to expect."

Dokic is no longer on speaking terms with her father and former coach Damir and maintains only irregular contact with her mother Liliana.

Damir is one of the most reviled figures in international tennis because of a series of ugly, drunken confrontations.

He ordered his daughter to abandon Australia in 2001 after repeatedly accusing Australian Open officials of rigging the draw and the family moved to Serbia.

Dokic, who has been living in Croatia with her boyfriend, blames her father for many of the problems which have blighted her career.

"What happened before, I had no control over," Dokic said.

"I wanted to go back before but I was a little afraid of what reception I'd receive.

"Everyone will have their opinion and I cannot know how much will be positive or negative, but I owe a lot to so many people in Australia. It is where I belong."

Dokic and her family fled war-ravaged Yugoslavia in 1994 to settle in Sydney.

The nimble baseliner was quickly spotted as a future star and guided through the Australian system by coaches Craig Miller, Lesley Bowrey and Tony Roche.

Glories soon flowed with an appearance in the Wimbledon semi-finals after beating No.1 seed Martina Hingis in the opening round, WTA titles and the seemingly inevitable rise to grand slam honours.

But Damir Dokic's antics - behaviour which led to a six-month ban from tournaments after his fight over the price of a plate of fish at the US Open - created a suffocating millstone.

As rumours of physical and mental abuse shadowed Dokic's results, she finally succumbed.

"I was upset with what happened before," she said.

"There just comes a point when you have had enough. If you train for 10 hours and a day and you aren't happy, you cannot perform.

"My father and I have completely different ideas. We aren't on the same wavelength. I am not able to live with him or to work with him.

"When you are in that situation you can survive for a certain period of time but then it has to end.

"It is like that with a coach, but it is so much tougher when it is family."

Dokic again wallowed this season, dropping to the secondary Challenger circuit. She was a no-show at Wimbledon qualifying, where she had been promised a wildcard.

She has identified the Australian Open training camp at Melbourne Park next month as a launch pad for regrouping.

She plans to contest the play-off for the Australian Open singles wild card before tournaments in Auckland and Canberra.

"When you have gone through so much . . . I've no regrets at what happened. If I win a grand slam or reach the top 10 it's because it was destined to happen.

"I carried an enormous amount of pressure on my shoulders before, but I'm free of that now.

"I finally feel happy and good about my life."

[Coaster]

If she wasnt a tennis player would the government even let her into the country?

We have enough crazy immigrants with a chip on there shoulder and dislike for Australia without letting any more in.

[Titanium_BD1103]

Give the girl a chance peoples.. IMO.. I know a lot of you would disagree and a few years back when she tried that I was on your side... but now.. she is coming back.. no longer with her father.. and things have changed.. :)

I reckon she is here to stay this time.. so lets welcome her and hope she can revive Australian Womens Tennis with Alisha Molik out ATM with injury.. as it needs all the help it can get.. :D :D

[Coaster]

I was never on her side.

And i dont like the fact that we let crazy immigrants into our country on the criteria that they can hit a ball back over a net.

If she wants to become an Australian, then let her do it through the same channels as every other immigrant that wants to mirgrate.

[Social Loafer]

I was never on her side.

And i dont like the fact that we let crazy immigrants into our country on the criteria that they can hit a ball back over a net.

If she wants to become an Australian, then let her do it through the same channels as every other immigrant that wants to mirgrate.

She had Australian Citizenship long before she started playing tennis for Australia.....

[Coaster]

She moved to Australia in 1994.

That is not a long time.

[Research Station Drive]

Anyone willing to assist me in a campaign for her hand in marriage?

[Dakink]

I ll be your best man?

She deserves a chance - she has got rid of that arragont twat and now likes like she is making her own decisions. She is now a young adult - before she was a child being influenced by her over bearing father.

[Steelers]

She moved to Australia in 1994.

That is not a long time.

She would have been 11 at the time

[Titans#1]

I don't have anything constructive to add here, just this:

Whenever I see her or hear her name I have to think of Austin Powers and the "mole".
"Nice to mole you..."

[Queenslander]

I don't have anything constructive to add here, just this:

Whenever I see her or hear her name I have to think of Austin Powers and the "mole".
"Nice to mole you..."

"Dont say mole, i said mole"

"Molie Molie Molie"

But yes let her in just as long as her father isnt smuggled in with her.