Jelena Dokic has revealed she feared for her life amid her father Damir’s harrowing abuse during her professional sporting career.
The Aussie tennis champion, 41, has documented the years-long abuse she suffered at the hands of Damir in her tell-all feature film Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story.
She appeared on Nova’s Jase & Lauren to discuss the documentary and recalled how she feared for her life when she was just 17 years old because of Damir’s abuse.
Jelena told how her father forced her to play for Yugoslavia in the 2001 Australian Open as she discussed the widespread criticism she received at the time.
She admitted she was afraid of being beaten by her father if she didn’t agree to change which country she played for and even feared for her life at one point.
‘When I had to switch from playing from Australia to Yugoslavia within 24 hours of walking on Rod Laver Arena to play Lindsay Davenport, I was literally between two fires,’ she told hosts Jason Hawkins and Lauren Phillips.
Jelena Dokic has revealed she feared for her life amid her father Damir’s harrowing abuse during her professional sporting career
‘My father here, if I didn’t go and say it in a media conference that was called on suddenly, when I came back to the hotel room, who knows, I probably wouldn’t have survived that beating.
‘Or here, I had the media, sponsors [and the] public who were going to hammer me – like they did – so what do you do?
‘So of course, I did that and 24 hours later you walk out and you’re on Rod Laver Arena, 15,000 people booing you, everyone writing that you’re a traitor.’
Jelena heartbreakingly said she would have suffered ‘100 years’ of abuse from Damir if it had meant she could have kept playing for Australia.
‘This always makes me emotional, nothing else does,’ she tearfully said.
‘I’ve said recently and people find it shocking, I would take 100 years of abuse for him not to have taken that moment from me with my people, with Australia.
‘I came back a few years later, yes I was accepted, but it was never the same until my book came out, and until now.’
Jelena confessed it wasn’t the only time she feared for her life and was once left unconscious from her father’s beating as she discussed fleeing his influence at 19.
Speaking on Nova’s Jase & Lauren, Jelena recalled how she feared for her life when she was just 17 years old because of Damir’s abuse (she is pictured with her parents Damir and Ljiljana)
‘I had to leave at 19 because I didn’t know if the next beating I was going to survive,’ she detailed.
‘There was one at 17 where I was knocked out cold, I was kicked and punched in the head so hard it left me unconscious.
‘This is what happens, the next one you don’t know if you’re going to survive. I knew that, I knew he was getting more violent.’
Jelena was born in Yugoslavia and her family moved to Australia when she was 11 years old, where she started to pursue tennis.
She made the Wimbledon quarter finals in 1999 and semi finals in 2000, followed by the 2002 French Open quarter finals, but was suffering from shocking abuse from her father at the same time.
In her documentary, Jelena recalled how felt pressure to win because Damir would inflict regular beatings on her.
‘I knew if I lost the consequences were catastrophic,’ she said while watching footage of herself play tennis.
‘One day after I lost I knew what was going to happen… I was starting to feel really broken inside.
Jelena (pictured in 2011) told how her father forced her to play for Yugoslavia in the 2001 Australian Open and said she would now suffer ‘100 years’ of abuse not to have done that
‘There was not an inch of skin that wasn’t bruised. I’m 17 and through his actions, [I] became the most hated person.’
Jelena also revealed she doesn’t ‘hate’ her father for the abuse she suffered, though she cannot forgive him for his actions.
‘I don’t blame anyone. I don’t resent anyone. I definitely don’t hate anyone, never would,’ Jelena told the Daily Telegraph.
‘I’m not bitter about it. Even to my father, which people find surprising. But I don’t hate him. I don’t necessarily forgive him, but I don’t hate him.’
