Ex-tennis ace made to ‘sleep in Wimbledon locker room’ by abusive father
Former tennis star Jelena Dokic has alleged that she had to sleep in the Wimbledon locker room after being banned from her hotel by her abusive father. Dokic was devastated after being dumped out of the semi-finals by Lindsay Davenport in 2000 but her father told her she had ‘let down’ her family.
Dokic, now 40, claims that she was given a harsh dressing down by Damir Dokic after the match. Her father banned the former world No 4 from the family hotel, leaving her to sleep in the players’ locker room.
Cleaners found Dokic sleeping in the middle of the night. She made harrowing revelations about being physically beaten by her father from the start of her career.
“When I started playing tennis and hit the first ball, my father beat me, and things got worse behind closed doors,” Dokic told the Head Game podcast.
“I was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, I’m sitting in the players’ section, crying and listening to my father say that I’m a disgrace and that I’ve ruined both my family and him because I lost in the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
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“I was not allowed to go to the hotel and was told to do whatever I wanted, to manage, to sleep on the street and not be able to come back. I stayed at Wimbledon, I waited for everyone to leave and I went to the corner of the players’ sector, to have a place to stay and to sleep there. They found me in the middle of the night, because the cleaners cleaned the place at night.”
It comes after Dokic opened up on social media trolling about her weight earlier this year. Now a commentator and tennis coach, Dokic opened up about her mental strength having been abused since a young age.
“What is the most common comment I see when it comes to my body size and weight? What happened to her? I can barely recognise her. Really? What happened? You can’t recognise me?” Dokic wrote in April.
“Let me tell you what happened. I survived being a refugee twice, I was bullied, I lived in a domestic violence-filled home for 15 years and I was beaten unconscious.
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“I was abused physically and emotionally and got beaten for the first time when I was six years [old], I was called a whore and a cow since I was as young as 11.
“I had to escape home, I battled anxiety, depression, PTSD and trauma and I almost committed suicide.
“I still managed to do pretty well, I managed to be top 5 in the world as tennis player and a grand slam finalist, I am a bestselling author, commentator and speaker but most importantly I survived.”
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