All sports stars know that dealing with highs and lows comes with the territory, as part of the job. But few have been through such extremes as Jelena Dokic, who spent her whole career, and much of her life, navigating painful moments. Abused, physically and psychologically, by her father, Dokic suffered from depression, an eating disorder and, at the very lowest moments, contemplated suicide.<\/p>\n
But Dokic never gave up, showing rare resilience, built from her experience growing up in a war-torn country and being a refugee, twice. (Dokic was born in Croatia \u2013 part of the former Yugoslavia \u2013 and moved to Serbia, before settling in Australia). Somehow, even in the worst moments off the court, she was able to produce incredible moments on it.<\/p>\n
In 1999, aged 16, she crushed Martina Hingis, the defending champion, in the first round at Wimbledon. The following year she reached the semi-finals at the same grand slam and narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.<\/p>\n
This May marks 25 years since the biggest title of Dokic\u2019s career, her victory in the Italian Open in Rome. Still only 18, she beat Amelie Mauresmo in the final and seemed on her way to the very top. She won two more titles that year, three more the following season, and in August 2002 she was ranked No 4. Eventually, the well-documented behaviour of her father, Damir, who died last year<\/a>, brought her down, but remarkably, a quarter of a century on, she retains her love for tennis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough sport, travelling 10 months a year,\u201d Dokic says, sitting inside the media centre during the Australian Open earlier this year. \u201cYou start playing at four, five, six years of age. But just like any sport, those are the hours you put in if you love something that you do.<\/p>\n Jelena Dokic plays a backhand at Wimbledon in 2001. Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus\/EPA<\/p>\n \u201cI love my role now completely, doing what I do in talking tennis, it\u2019s a big passion of mine. I will always love tennis and always have. Even in my worst moments, absolutely. And if anyone ever asked me, \u2018what about my kid playing professionally, or even to play for fun\u2019, I always say \u2018do it\u2019. It\u2019s a great sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back on her Rome triumph, Dokic is proud that she was able to show her tennis ability despite everything that was happening to her, abuse she detailed openly and heartbreakingly in two books and most recently in a documentary, Unbreakable<\/a>, released in 2024. Dokic doesn\u2019t blame anyone for her plight; instead, she says she was fortunate, a victim who survived and emerged stronger, able to help others.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m extremely lucky to be here,\u201d she says. \u201cMany are not, and many you will never hear about \u2026 have never maybe been able to fulfil their dream and their talent. If you look at all the champions, grand slam champions, No 1s in the world in any sport, they have had incredible [family] support. You can\u2019t go without that, and you can\u2019t even get close to the top if you don\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to show parents, to show coaches, and to show the world in general, there was this narrative for a very long time that if you\u2019re really, really tough on your kid, and actually if you abuse them, then that creates champions. But it is such a wrong narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n Jelena Dokic reacts during a tennis match in 2009. Photograph: Vadim Ghird\u0103\/AP<\/p>\n After a lifetime of struggle, Dokic has found her calling. A respected on-court tennis interviewer and pundit for Australian TV, she is also a campaigner for victims of domestic abuse. Content in her own skin, she has never been happier.<\/p>\n \u201cI found so much strength in actually speaking up, in being an advocate, in not being ashamed of your life and what you go through,\u201d she says. \u201cI think owning your story and being authentic about it, yeah, it\u2019s brought happiness to me. It\u2019s actually saved my life.<\/p>\n \u201cI say the day that my book came out was the best day of my life by far, and that\u2019s a big statement, because yes, I\u2019ve had the lows, but I\u2019ve also had incredible highs in my life, personally and professionally. But nothing will ever compare to that, the freedom that comes with being open about your story, about who you are, about what you\u2019ve gone through. It\u2019s life-saving.\u201d<\/p>\n Jelena Dokic interviews Spanish tennis great Rafael Nadal during the 2026 Australian Open. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n Dokic, 43, has a new partner and though they don\u2019t plan to start a family, children could yet be in her future.<\/p>\n \u201cI still am open to adoption in a couple of years, potentially, absolutely,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s always been kind of on my mind. I think I can give so much love to a kid that will potentially go through a tough time, be an orphan, maybe not have that love and support. I\u2019ve always felt like I can give a lot of that, and I love kids, so I\u2019m still open to that idea, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling <\/a>is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline<\/a> on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid<\/a>. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All sports stars know that dealing with highs and lows comes with the territory, as part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-613217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}