"My father's sitting in a hotel watching as I'm getting booed by 15,000 people" - Jelena Dokic on controversial move leading to Australian Open horror
Jelena Dokic was a teen sensation when she first burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. She beat the then World No. 1 Martina Hingis at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships to announce her arrival on the big stage.
Success followed immediately but her life was also marred by challenges, most notably her complicated relationship with father-turned-coach Damir, who she has since accused of physical and emotional abuse during her tennis career.
One of the most notable changes that Damir forced upon Jelena was a shift in national representation between 2000 and 2006. Born in Serbia, Dokic moved to Australia as a young girl with her family. She began her tennis career representing Australia.
During a recent interview with the Carrie & Tommy Show, Dokic revealed that changing her national representation was one of the toughest decisions that she was forced to take.
The Aussie went on to recall being booed by the Australian fans during the 2001 edition of the Australian Open, saying her father was simply sitting back at the hotel room while she faced the brunt.
“I would take 100 years of abuse if I could take back not playing for Australia for a few years,” Jelena Dokic said. "He took away from me, something that I loved so much. He took that away from me in that moment."
“He's sitting in a hotel room watching this while I'm getting booed by 15,000 people. I just wanted to kind of drop into the ground and disappear and never come back,” she added.
"It took 10 or 15 years for them to know the truth" - Jelena Dokic on sharing her struggles with tennis world through her book
Jelena Dokic also spoke about the struggles she endured to come forward and share her story, saying she continued to take abuse without having the courage to open up for years.
It was only through her book, Unbreakable, that she was able to share details from some of the most difficult years on the Tour with her fans and the rest of the tennis world.
“I would take any abuse, anything in this world to not even just go through that personally, but that it didn't take my people," Jelena Dokic said. "...Australians and my fans and everyone that always cheered for me"
"That it didn't take 10 or 15 years until my book came out for them to know the truth and just how much I really love Australia,” she added.
Dokic's book, which was released in 2017, has been adapted into a feature film, Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, which hit the silver screen in Australia on November 7.