Jelena Dokic's difficult move after estranged father Damir dies days after doco award
Popular tennis commentator and former player Jelena Dokic has sent a 'difficult' message to her fans asking for space after revealing her abusive father and former coach Damir Dokic has died. Taking to social media, Dokic revealed her father had died in the late hours of 16 May.
Dokic's relationship with her father was well documented over the years. The Aussie recently announced she had been recognised for her groundbreaking doco 'Unbreakable' that detailed the abuse she suffered at the hands of Damir. The former tennis star reached World No.4 during her playing days, but did so under the tenure of her controlling father.
Regardless of the pain her father put her through, Dokic shared a message and admitted her conflicting feelings at this difficult time. "As you know my relationship with my father has been difficult and painful with a lot of history," Dokic wrote in an Instagram post.
"Despite everything and no matter how hard, difficult and in the last 10 years even non existent our relationship and communication was, it is never easy losing a parent and a father even one you are estranged from. The loss of an estranged parent comes with a difficult and complicated grief. It's an end of a chapter and life as I know it."
Dokic accompanied the post with a photo of her when she was younger with Damir. And the former tennis star said she wanted to focus on the good memories she shared with her father as she processes the loss.
"For the end of this chapter, I choose to focus on a good memory like this picture," she said. "And as always and especially important to who I am as a person and what I want to stand for which is respect, grace, kindness, dignity and empathy, I will and want to be that person in this situation too."
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A post shared by JELENA DOKIC 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 (@dokic_jelena)
Dokic retired from tennis in 2014 and has become a tennis commentator. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist has two books detailing her relationship with her father and has advocated for conversations around mental health and domestic violence since putting down the racquet.
At the height of Dokic's career, Damir made her turn her back on Australia and switch allegiances to Yugoslavia, which saw her booed at the Australian Open by fans who thought it was her decision. Dokic was born in Croatia when it was still part of Yugoslavia, but moved to Australia with her family at age 11. She won the US Open junior girls title in 1998 while representing Australia, and teamed up with Mark Philippoussis to win the Hopman Cup in 1999 as a 15-year-old.
Dokic switched her allegiance back to Australia in 2005, but said the Australian public's perception of her was "never the same". She went on to achieve a 14-3 record in Fed Cup and produced many famous victories for Australia.
Back in January, Channel 9 aired Dokic's documentary, 'Unbreakable', which shined a light on some of the horrific treatment she received at the hands of her father. The documentary was adapted from her 2017 memoir of the same name and it also aired in cinemas late last year.
The documentary showed the former tennis star's courage to overcome the horrific abuse and become the person she is today. And only last week Dokic revealed it had won 'Feature Documentary Production of the Year' at the annual Screen Producer Awards.
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