Former Australian tennis champion Jelena Dokic says she’d suffer through ‘100 years of abuse’ from her father if it mean she could undo her decision to turn her back on playing for Australia.
The 41-year-old former world No. 4 was born in what was then Yugoslavia and her family moved to Australia when she was 11 years old.
Her tennis career peaked when she made the Wimbledon quarter finals in 1999 and semi finals in 2000, followed by the 2002 French Open quarter finals.
Dokic represented Australia early in her career, but announced in 2001 that she was turning her back on her new home and would represent Yugoslavia instead.
She says that her father was behind the controversial decision and she wishes it had never happened.
‘I would take 100 years of abuse if I could take back not playing for Australia for a few years,’ she told the Carrie & Tommy radio show.
‘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.
Jelena Dokic says she’d suffer through ‘100 years of abuse’ from her father (pictured with her mother Ljiljana) to undo her decision to play for Yugoslavia instead of Australia
Dokic, who turned her back on Australia in 2001, blamed her lost dream of playing for her country on her father
‘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, 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.’
As the tell-all feature film Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story is set to hit cinemas this month, Jelena also admitted that while she may not forgive her father, she does not ‘hate’ him.
‘I don’t blame anyone. I don’t resent anyone. I definitely don’t hate anyone, never would,’ Jelena told the Daily Telegraph.
‘I’m not bitter about it.
‘Even to my father, which people find surprising. But I don’t hate him. I don’t necessarily forgive him, but I don’t hate him.’
In a trailer for Unbreakable, Jelena recalls how she felt pressure to win as her father Damir would inflict regular beatings.
‘I’m 16 years old here. I was playing the number 1 Martina Hingis and I knew if I lost the consequences were catastrophic,’ she says in the trailer while watching footage of herself play.
The teen prodigy’s tennis career peaked when she made the Wimbledon quarter finals in 1999 and semi finals in 2000, followed by the 2002 French Open quarter finals
Dokic has made claims that her dad physically and emotionally abused her from the age of six
‘One day after I lost I knew what was going to happen… I was starting to feel really broken inside.
‘There was not an inch of skin that wasn’t bruised. I’m 17 and through his actions, [I] became the most hated person.’
Her autobiography of the same name was released in 2017 and Jelena details harrowing physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her father Damir during her playing career.
Jelena told the Telegraph that she feels ‘incredible freedom’ having told her story in the book and now the feature film.
‘It gave me a voice. It gave me the power to reclaim my life. I’ve never been happier,’ she said.
‘I was not silenced for the very first time in my life. And incredible freedom comes with that.’
During her appearance on Jess Rowe’s Big Talk Show in May, Jelena spoke about her book and reiterated that she does not hate her abusive father.
‘After reading your story, I hate your dad,’ Jess told Jelena, expressing surprise that the former athlete doesn’t share the same feelings.
Dokic says she does not blame her father Demir for the abuse she suffered as a young player
‘No. I don’t want to come from that place. I don’t hate anyone. Hate is a very strong word, but I can understand you and people using it,’ Jelena responded.
‘For whatever reason the universe gave me that as my childhood and my life and I have to accept the circumstances… I don’t have to hate him, but I don’t forgive him.’
Despite suffering through years of abuse, Jelena revealed earlier this year why she once tried to reconcile with her father when they last made contact a decade ago.
‘I last had contact with him about 10 years ago. And yeah, I even tried to reconcile with him once or twice,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald in January.
‘I think no matter what happens, you kind of hope that maybe you can kind of salvage a relationship when it comes to family.’
