Almost three years ago, Jelena Dokic, former world champion and semi-finalist in Wimbledon 2000, published the autobiography "Unbreakable" together with Australian journalist Jessica Halloran.
In the book, the tennis star, who was born in former Yugoslavia but now lives in Melbourne, Australia, described in detail the physical and psychological abuses of her father Damir before and during his time in the absolute world elite in the early 2000s.
"Violence and bullying"- I've gone through a lot, Jelena Dokic tells The Telegraph and continues:
- But there were not many alternatives. I would either go through it or give up. I was close to committing suicide at one time. No matter how badly my father abused me, through violence and bullying, I was always the way I was with tennis: Willing to find a way out. I believed there was something better, a solution. That's what I was fighting for, to one day have a better life.
This week Wimbledon should have started this year, but due to the corona pandemic this year's edition of the prestigious grand slam tournament has been canceled.
Surprised as a 17-year-oldTwenty years ago, at the age of 17, Dokic surprisingly made her way all the way to the semi-finals on the lawns outside London, where she was knocked out by American Lindsay Davenport.
At the stand, when Dokic's father turned her back on the loss and in drunken condition, he later called her "pathetic", "a hopeless kiss" and refused to cover her head that night in the UK capital in July 2000.
What many did not know at the time was that Damir also beat his daughter. Decades later, Jelena Dokic, who no longer has any contact with her father, has been reconciled with her experiences.
- I hope we never see a case like mine again, says the 37-year-old, who works as a tennis commentator and lecturer, among others, and adds:
- But if we do, I trust that it will be revealed in a completely different way.