Tennis world moved by Jelena Dokic's brave act after death of abusive father

Daily Mail​

27-05-2025

Jelena Dokic has been met with an outpouring of praise from tennis fans for her courage in returning to work after revealing last week that her dad Damir had died at the age of 67.
The one-time world No. 4 took to social media last Wednesday to reveal in a lengthy and emotional post that her father had passed away.
Jelena suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her father who was also her tennis coach early on in her career.
'As you know my relationship with my father has been difficult and painful with a lot of history,' she posted.
'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.'
Despite the emotional turmoil, Dokic was back at work on Sunday night, leading Channel 9's coverage of the French Open.
Fans took to social media to praise Dokic for her bravery at such a difficult time.
'Thank God she is BACK.' posted one fan.
'You are inspirational and a brilliant role model. Love your work,' replied another.
'Hope you are going ok working after your recent loss, thinking of you and sending love,' posted a third.
Damir, who was his daughter's tennis coach early on in her career, garnered a reputation in the tennis community for having a fierce temper and was kicked out of four grand slam tournaments within a 12 month period alone.
In September 2000, the man once dubbed the 'tennis father from hell' was kicked out and banned from the US Open over in a bizarre incident that started as a dispute over a $10 piece of salmon.
Damir verbally abused a food service worker in the players' lounge at the National Tennis Centre after objecting to the price and size of a portion of salmon he was served.
The dispute escalated when the tennis coach threw the fish at the female worker.
Jelena recalled the incident in the Channel Nine documentary Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, adapted from her 2017 memoir of the same name.
Footage aired in the documentary showed the tournament's head of security Pete Pistone escorting Damir into the parking lot.
'Please don't touch me,' Damir said while resisting.
He then turned aggressive and branding the security guard a 'f**ing idiot'.
Jelena was just 17 at the time.
'I started to get really overwhelmed and emotional, and I started crying,' she recalled.
'For me, this was an everyday thing. It was just hell, but now it was also very public.
Mr Pistone is believed to have said 'I've never seen a crazier mother f***er in the world' in reference to Damir.
The embarrassing incident was one in a long line of aggressive moments courtesy of the tennis legend's father.
Earlier that same year, Damir was accused of attacking a cameraman at the Australian Open.
Five months later, Damir was escorted by police from Wimbledon for drunkenly parading around a flag and smashing a reporter's phone shortly after his daughter won a match.
He was seen drinking heavily prior to the match before walking around the arena waving a cross of St George and shouting slogans such as 'the Women's Association are fascists and political' and 'the Queen is for democracy, everything else in this country is fascist'.
As bemused tennis fans looked on, Damir then approached the main press building where he became involved in a heated conversation with journalists before smashing a mobile phone.
The following year at the Australian Open, Damir claimed there were irregularities in the draw following Jelena's first round loss to US star Lindsay Davenport.
'I think the draw is fixed just for her,' he claimed.
Damir was banned from the tournament due to abusive behavior.
In 2009, he was jailed for 15 months after threatening to kill the Australian ambassador to Serbia with a grenade launcher after heavily armed police arrested him and confiscated an arsenal of weapons that included two homemade bombs.
The sentence was later reduced to 12 months following a second appeal.
In the documentary about her life, Jelena bravely opened up about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and the pressure she felt to win as Damir would inflict regular beatings.
Watching footage of herself play in the documentary, she said: 'I'm 16 years old here. I was playing the No. 1 Martina Hingis and I knew if I lost the consequences were catastrophic.
'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.'
In another harrowing incident, she detailed her father kicking her head until she lost consciousness after she lost a match.