Jelena Dokic, Tennis Player, - Biography,
Put
a Sexy Jelena Dokic Poster in your Room Get some here
Croatian tennis player.
A
pic of her
Born April 12, 1983, Osijek, Yugoslavia ( now in Croatia )
Height
5 foot 9 ( 175 cm )
Weight 132 lb (60 kg)
Career record:
233-154
Career titles: 5
Highest ranking: No. 4 (August 19, 2002)
Grand
Slam results
Australian Open 3rd (1999)
French Open QF (2002)
Wimbledon
SF (2000)
U.S. Open 4th (2000, 2001)
Career record:
111-88
Career titles: 4
Highest ranking: No. 10 (February 4, 2002)
Jelena Dokic is a female professional tennis player who has played for both Australia & Serbia & Montenegro (including Yugoslavia prior to February 2003), & currently plays for Australia. Her career-high ranking is No. 4 (on August 19, 2002), but by the end of 2005 had slipped to 349th place in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) singles rankings. As of May 28, 2007, Dokic is 650th in the WTA rankings.
The high points of Dokic's career include beating No. 1 ranked
Martina Hingis in the first round of Wimbledon in 1999, Kim Clijsters (also ranked
No.1 at the time) at the 2003 Zürich Open (October) as well as Venus Williams
in Rome 2000. She was ranked No. 4 in 2002 (a career high), No. 14 in 2003, &
No. 25 in 2004.
Family life
Jelena was born to a Serbian family in the Croatian
town of Osijek (then in Yugoslavia) as an eldest child of Damir & Ljiljana
Dokic. She has a younger brother, Savo. At the start of the war in Croatia in
June 1991, her family moved away to Sombor, Serbia, & later, in 1994, emigrated
to Australia. From 1994, they lived in Fairfield, a suburb of Sydney; where she
attended Fairfield High School.
Tennis career
Dokic was an accomplished
junior player. In 1998, she won the US Open girls singles title, & the French
Open doubles with Kim Clijsters, ending the season ranked number 1 in in the International
Tennis Federation junior singles world ranking & number 7 in doubles.
In 1999, Dokic made her professional breakthrough. As a qualifier at Wimbledon, she made one of the biggest upsets in Open Era tennis, defeating then No. 1 Martina Hingis 6-2 6-0, in the first round. Then No. 129, she was the lowest-ranked player to have defeated the No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam in the Open Era. She also defeated No. 9 seed Mary Pierce in straight sets, before losing in the quarter-finals to Alexandra Stevenson. The same year, together with Mark Philippoussis, she won Australia's first Hopman Cup title, & also won her first WTA doubles title with Amanda Coetzer. That year she jumped 298 spots, finishing the year at No. 43.
In 2000, her success at Wimbledon continued. She reached the semi-finals, before losing to Lindsay Davenport 6-4 6-2. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, she lost to Monica Seles in the bronze medal match 6-1 6-4. She finished the year at No. 26.
2001
From the 2001 Australian Open, she began playing for Yugoslavia.
Her father, Damir, claimed irregularities in the draw, after her first-round loss
to Lindsay Davenport & her father's ban from the tennis tournament due to
abusive behavior. Damir later said "I think the draw is fixed just for her"
After the Australian Open, her family moved to the United States.
In May, she won her first singles title in the Rome Masters, defeating Amélie Mauresmo in the final, 7-6(3) 6-1. Later that year, together with Conchita Martinez, she reached the finals of the French Open, but was defeated by Virginia Ruano Pascual & Paola Suarez in straights sets.
Later in the year, she reached five finals, winning two titles, in Tokyo (defeating former No. 1 player Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario), & the Kremlin Cup (def. Elena Dementieva). She also won her second title in doubles, in Linz, with Nadia Petrova. She also qualified in WTA Tour Championships in singles, reaching the quarter-finals. She finished the year at No. 8.
2002
Dokic started her 2002 season at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, in Japan, losing to Anne Kremer in the second round. She was also defeated by Kramer in the third round at both Indian Wells & the Miami Masters. In February, she reached her career high doubles ranking, No. 10. In the final of the Open Gaz de France, she was forced to hand a walkover to Venus Williams due to a right thigh strain suffered in her win over Monica Seles in the semi-finals. The following week in Antwerp, she again suffered a right thigh strain, which forced her to retire during the second round, & again in April in the semi-finals in Amelia Island & Hamburg.
In April, she won her third singles title & her second in doubles (with Likhovtseva) in Sarasota, Florida. Dokic was unable to defend her Rome Masters title, losing to No. 11 seed Anastasia Myskina in the 3rd round. In Strasbourg, she reached her fifth final, losing to Silvia Farina Elia.
At the 2002 French Open, she was defeated by No. 1 seed Jennifer Capriati in the quarter-finals, 6-4 4-6 6-1. After Wimbledon, she reached two finals, in Birmingham & San Diego (d. by Myskina & V. Williams). Later that summer, she reached her career high ranking in singles, No. 4.
In Los Angeles, she teamed-up with her junior doubles partner, Kim Clijsters to win her third doubles title. In October, she defended her title in Linz, with Nadia Petrova.
At the Canada Masters, Bahia, & the Toyota Princess Cup, she reached the semi-finals, losing to top 5 ranked players at each. Dokic again qualified for WTA Tour Championships, losing in the quarter-finals to Serena Williams. She finished the year at No. 9.
2003
Despite
these early successes, after parting ways with her erratic father Damir, who was
also her coach, her career problems began. In 2003, she hired Borna Bikic from
Croatia to be her trainer (while simultaneously dating his brother Tin), contrary
to the wishes of her father Damir on both counts. Her tennis suffered & her
slide down the standings continued.
A string of disappointing 1st or 2nd round exits commenced as she clearly suffered from severe loss of confidence. No longer a part of her life physically, her father continued to be a presence as he publicly criticised her choices. At one stage, he termed her boyfriend Enrique Bernoldi, a former Formula One driver with whom she lived at the time, "an idiot".
She played matches at 30 events, reaching one final, one SF & seven QF. At Zurich, she won, then No.1 tennis player, Kim Clijsters, later to loss to Justine Henin in finals. She also reached a final in doubles, in Rome with Nadia Petrova.
2004
In mid-2004, Jelena returned to her family in
Serbia, trying to put her life back in order & regain confidence. However,
the attempt was unsuccessful, & in November 2005, after a turbulent period
of 4-5 months during which she canceled all her tennis commitments & not even
her family knew her whereabouts, she returned to Australia proclaiming, "I
want to play for Australia again".
2006
Representing Australia for
the first time in 5 years, Dokic received a wild card into the ASB Classic in
Auckland in January. She lost her first round match to Julia Schruff, 5-7 7-6(3)
6-1, hitting 51 unforced errors & 28 double faults. Dokic then earned a wildcard
berth at the 2006 Australian Open. She held a match point on her opponent Virginie
Razzano's serve, & hit what she thought was a forehand winner, only to have
the umpire overrule the ball out. She went on to lose the match, 3-6 7-6(6) 6-1,
hitting over 70 unforced errors.
Dokic didn't play again until April 10. After 3 months away from the game, she was beaten 7-5 7-5 by 18-year-old, 709th ranked Eleonora Punzo in the first qualifying round at the ITF circuit tournament (the level below the WTA tour) in Biarritz, France.
In May, the media reported that she was training in the Iva Majoli tennis academy.
In June, Dokic turned down a wild card in Zagreb & instead played in the qualifying rounds of the $25K event in Gorizia. She beat the sixteenth seed Michaela Johansson, Giulia Gatto-Monticone, & world number 325 Olga Panova. She then won her first round match against Maria-Vanina Garcia-Sokol, before losing to Romanian Madalina-Victorita Gojnea.
Later that month, Dokic played at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships. She gained entry into the qualifying draw via a wild-card entry, due to her past successes. However, she was defeated in the first qualifying round 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2 by Alexandra Stevenson after serving for the match at 6-4 5-4. She then declined a main-draw wild card in Martina Franca, Italy, & pulled out of tournaments in Hechingen, Germany, & Rimini, Italy.
Under the guidance of new coach Nikola Pilic, after over 3 months away from the tour due to injury, Dokic qualified for a $10K tournament defeating Mika Urbancic & Lynn Blau. In the main draw, she advanced to the semifinals, losing to Astrid Besser of Italy 3-6 6-3 7-6(5), who went on to win the final.
Controversy
In late November 2006 Serbian
press (mainly tabloids) reported her "mysterious disappearance" in Zagreb
& that Dokic was "allegedly missing". An Australian news website
ran a piece about this which was then carried by other sites including Eurosport.
Damir Dokic, Jelena's controversial father had reported Jelena missing with Serbian
police & claimed that Jelena "had been kidnapped" by her boyfriend,
Tin Bikic. Her German coach Martin Ruftner added fuel to the fire by claiming
he had been scheduled to meet Jelena at the Munich Airport on Sunday, 19th November
but she did not show & did not call, which Ruftner claimed was "totally
out of character" for Jelena.
Jelena Dokic slammed these allegations stating in Serbian sports daily Sportski žurnal that this was nothing but nonsense & that she was alive & well in Zagreb with her boyfriend & that she would soon be back at Nikola Pilic's Academy in Munich for a further 7 weeks of training before attempting a full-scale comeback on the ITF circuit in 2007. She also stated that she was no longer speaking with her father & hadn't been for some time.
In her interview she said she would not play in the Australian Open because she wasn't ready, & her aim was to get back into the top 30. Shortly after, Jelena left the academy. She was due to sign a contract to be in the academy for a year, but she instead returned to Borna Bikic, her coach. Jelena said she was not satisfied with the contract Pilic's Academy offered her.
2007
Jelena withdrew from events in Stuttgart, Caprioli
& Ortisei, Biberach & Buchen. She then lost early in the $10,000 events
of Rome Real & Rome Panda to low-ranked players. Jelena then continued to
withdraw from events, allegedly due to a wrist injury which had been troubling
her for some time. It is also believed that Jelena's father, Damir, is currently
seriously ill.
This site was written in June 2007
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