New friend but old enemies

Jelena Dokic has confirmed she will not play in the Australian Open in January.
Dokic said it was because she still did not feel welcome in the country she had lived in for six years.

She was Australia's top-ranked woman's player until a bitter row with the Australian media drove her back to her native Yugoslavia last year.



I wouldn't have too many people supporting me

Jelena Dokic
She said: "I don't think it's a very good idea to go back there, it would be very complicated.

"Mentally I don't think I would feel great to play there.

"I had a lot of problems with the media and in the end I felt the people started to feel the same way too.

"Either way, I wouldn't have too many people supporting me.

"It's a risk to go there, you never know what can happen."

Dokic was speaking after ending her season with a 7-6 6-0 loss to world number one Serena Williams in the quarter-finals of the WTA Tour Championships.

She was born in Yugoslavia but moved with her family to Australia in 1994.

The family endured a rocky relationship with the Australian public primarily because of her father Damir´s repeated run-ins with authorities.

They returned to Belgrade taking out Yugoslav passports in November 2000

Big deal S/V get no support from the crowd here in the U.S. and they were born but they still come out and play and win.

Yes but the crowds don't boo them except at Indian Wells.

Its not that they don't support her its just they were horrible to her!

I can totally understand Jelena's anger towards the media. But everyone knows that many in the media are scum; and, Jelena's only hurting herself by doing this. If the media really was out to get her, then it has succeeded.

The AO is too important to miss for a player who wants to be a Top 10. Dokic's skipping the AO this year is probably what prompted her to play 40 some odd other tournaments to compensate. Her body can't handle it.

Now she's talking about playing less next year. This means only one of two things: 1) Either she no longer wants to be in the top ten, or 2) she thinks she can keep her top 10 rank despite missing a major (as Serena has done). I can't speak about option 1, but I can say that if she thinks she can do a Serena next year then...

On second thought, I'll just keep that one to myself.

For god's sake, the day after she defected and accused them of rigging the draw there were like one or two people booing her at the Australian Open. There was a murmur when they announced Jelena Dokic representing Yugoslavia and that was it. I'm sure people in Australia aren't going to waste their time giving her a hard time.