Jelena Dokic's teary admission about 2001 Australian Open controversy
Jelena Dokic has shared that she would endure "100 years of abuse" to go back in time and represent Australia at the 2001 Australian Open.
During an emotional interview with Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little, the tennis champion recalled the earlier years of her career, and the abuse she faced at the hands of her father, who was also her coach.
At 17 years old, Jelena was booed off Rod Laver Arena at the 2001 Australian Open after losing to Lindsay Davenport, after she announced plans to turn her back on Australia and represent her native Yugoslavia instead.
The decision not to represent Australia was made by her father, and at that point in her career, he had been banned from attending her matches.
“I would take 100 years of abuse if I could take back not playing for Australia for a few years,” an emotional Dokic told the Carrie & Tommy 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."
“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.”
Jelena switched allegiances back to Australia in 2005 and went on to represent Australia in the 2009 Fed Cup, winning several matches.
Dokic said getting booed by the Australian crowd was a low point of her career, given there was nothing she loved more than representing Australia.
“I came to this country as an 11-year-old and I really accepted it and loved Australia,” she said,
“I loved representing Australia. I loved team events. Everything that had to do with team events, I always won. I had like a 99 per cent win rate. There’s a reason for that."
“He (Damir Dokic) took that away from me for those few years. I wanted to come back earlier but I was worried about people’s reaction, even though I did come back three, four years later."
“Everyone did embrace me when I did come back but people still had doubts. They didn’t look at me as someone who was this patriotic Australian, and it hurt me because I was."
“I really accepted this country. I always say, I was born in a different country but I am Australian. I always looked at myself that way. I love Australia. I love my fans so much."
“It doesn’t matter what match it was, every time you would hear from the crowd,’ Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi’ when I was playing, I would literally get goosebumps.”"
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