Former world number 4 tennis star Jelena Dokic has explained why she tried to reconcile with her abusive father Damir as she revealed she last had contact with him a decade ago.
The 40-year-old has long been open about the suffering she endured at the hands of her father. She writes in her book Unbreakable that he regularly beat her with a belt or a hard-topped boot, and once knocked her unconscious.
“Even if I won, I would still be beaten and abused sometimes. “I had some really rough moments where I was punched, kicked and punched so much that I fell unconscious,” she said.
Dokic – pictured with her mother Ljiljana and father Damir at the 1999 US Open – has tried in vain to mend her relationship with her father ‘once or twice’
The 40-year-old has long been open about the suffering she endured at the hands of her father when he was her tennis coach from a young age.
Damir was her coach throughout her career and Dokic said he “silenced” her – and accepted nothing less than perfection.
‘I was silenced all my life. From the very first day I started playing tennis, rule number 1 was: “Never tell anyone anything or there will be huge, huge consequences,” she said of his dominant personality.
Now Dokic is opening up about the last time she had contact with the man who left her mentally scarred.
‘I last had contact with Hello about ten years ago. And yes, I even tried to reconcile with him once or twice,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I think no matter what happens, you hope that maybe you can save a relationship when it comes to family.
The former world number 4 (pictured playing at Wimbledon in 1999) revealed her father’s reaction to her approach made her realize she had to cut him out of her life.
‘That dynamic is always very difficult. But it is very difficult when someone is not sorry or cannot say sorry.
‘What he’s saying is that he would do it all again. So for me that’s very, very difficult.
“I had to make a choice and say, ‘I don’t need a toxic person or a toxic relationship in my life.’
Fortunately, the star player-turned-commentator is in a much better place with her brother and mother.
“I have a great relationship with my brother, which I’m very happy with, because my father used my brother and weaponized our relationship – meaning I couldn’t talk to him for seven years because he was so much younger than me.” she said.
‘We talk almost every day, and also with my mother. “I’ve had some tough conversations with her because she was on my dad’s side, but we’re in a good place today.”
Dokic also revealed what she wanted the journalists covering her on-field career to do when she was still coached by Damir, who she said was “very aggressive and drunk” during 90 percent of the interviews he gave.
The Channel Nine commentator (pictured with Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka) has become a mental health advocate and author
“I wish someone would have said, ‘Look, there are two minor children going home with this person and that’s not okay,’” she recalled.
“I wish there was maybe a little more concern, instead of him making a joke and a punch line.”
Last June, Dokic shed light on the harrowing truth behind a photo taken during her teenage years at the US Open.
In a deeply personal Instagram post, she revealed the harrowing experiences she had endured, including depression, social media abuse, body shaming and alleged violence inflicted by her father Damir throughout her career.
Dokic shared a photo of herself appearing distraught at a press conference, explaining the torment she faced as a 17-year-old after allegedly being physically attacked by her father just weeks earlier.
Last year, Dokic took to Instagram to reveal the crushing background of a seemingly innocent photo of her taken at the US Open (pictured)
“Young, 17 years old, in a media storm, unknowingly (sic) beaten by my father a few weeks earlier, trying so hard not to break down during the press conference,” she wrote.
‘Dealing with my father’s public and drunken outbursts, while the world is judging me and the media is all over the news.
‘Growing up in poverty a few years earlier, no food on the table, no clothes, been a refugee twice, bullied, isolated, confronted with racism.
“What came just a few years later after this photo was taken was me almost killing myself.
‘Sad, broken, alone, in pain and deeply traumatized.
‘It has made me who I am today and I am proud of that.’