Melbourne, Sept 28: Troubled Australian tennis player Jelena Dokic says he has reconciled with her father and former coach, Damir, after an eight-year rift.
Dokic, 28, who was ranked as high as No. 4 as a teenager during her peak, split with her father after a series of embarrassing public indiscretions including accusing Australian Open organizers of fixing the 2001 tournament draw, a vocal complaint over the price of food at the U.S. Open and his ejection from Wimbledon for being drunk and disorderly on the press balcony. She went on to accuse him of years of humiliation and abuse as her coach.
Damir Dokic was released after almost a year in jail last year for threatening to blow up the Australian Embassy in Belgrade and having an illegal cache of weapons at his house.
Jelena Dokic said in a statement that she and her partner Tin Bikic visited Damir in Serbia “to finally put an end to our disagreement.”
“I am in a very positive and confident frame of mind in my life and I really wanted to do this because I believe it is the right thing to do both for me and for all of my family,” said Dokic, who is now ranked No. 17. “My father was very receptive and I believe he has changed greatly. He understands that I am my own person who makes my own decisions.” AP
