Spare a thought for this girl. No, she wasn’t raped, she wasn’t brutalized in the Sudan, she wasn’t an Ipswich victim. And yet her story is tragic. Nothing detracts from the horror which is life for a huge section of the world population but this story is still a tragedy in its own way, in terms of what could have been and what never happened.
Jelena Dokic has been racially abused by a group of Croatian men in an ugly confrontation allegedly linked to inflammatory remarks made by her estranged father, Damir. Jelena who? Former tennis world No.4 Dokic was jostled, was subject to a string of anti-Serbian comments and had fruit juice thrown at her, Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List reported yesterday.
Now here’s the thing: The taunts were reportedly made in reprisal for one of her father Damir Dokic’s famous rants against Croatia and his recent unfounded claim his daughter had been kidnapped by the Bikic brothers, who are Croatian. Dokic was said to have been uninjured in the incident, but traumatised.
Now wallowing at 586th in world tennis, she has repeatedly made moves to sever ties with her buffoon father, who emigrated with his family to Sydney in 1994. Jelena's stellar junior career peaked with a ranking of world No.1 and acclaim as the International Tennis Federation's world junior champion. Nurtured by former grand slam greats Lesley Bowrey and Tony Roche, as well as Kim Warwick, Dokic's game blossomed before her father dragged her down.
And this is the thing. For years, while her father was being thrown out of stadia and was making statements such as believing the Williams sisters’ father was a ‘fine man’ and that Tennis Australia had a vendetta against his daughter, his daughter was steadfastly defending him to the press, who were having a field day.
It’s a matter of speculation how far she could have gone and maybe N4 was her true peak and yet the extraneous issue of the sapping of her confidence by her father, his tirades against any boyfriend she tried to have, her break with Australia, her attempt to come back, the whole mess, it was another Mary Pearce.
Fathers. The bane of daughters’ lives or their very best friend and help in time of need?
Poor girl. No one should have to go through this.
ReplyDeleteAs for fathers, mine was wonderful and I miss him every day though he died 33 years ago. He was an exciting, extravagant gambler and his daughter is terrible at money matters, probably because of that. But I could have gone to him with any problem and he was never shocked - only kind. I know I was one of the lucky ones.
Interesting to fall on your blog. We here don`t here very much about Russia. This is so unfair to this girl!
ReplyDeletetea
xo
You can choose your friends, but not your family. How true this is.
ReplyDeleteThis man, though, is a particularly virulent specimen, by all accounts.
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