Jelena Dokić

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**Jelena Dokic**

Country	Australia
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date of birth	April 12, 1983 (age 23)
Place of birth	Osijek, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Height	5'9" (175 cm)
Weight	132 lb (60 kg)
Turned Pro	1998
Plays	Right
Career Prize Money	$3,764,690
Singles
Career record:	233-154
Career titles:	5
Highest ranking:	No. 4 (August 19, 2002)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3rd (1999)
French Open	QF (2002)
Wimbledon	SF (2000)
U.S. Open	4th (2000, 2001)
Doubles
Career record:	111-88
Career titles:	4
Highest ranking:	No. 10 (February 4, 2002)
Infobox last updated on: October 16, 2006.

Jelena Dokić (Serbian: Јелена Докић) (born 12 April 1983) is a tennis player who has played for both Australia and Serbia and Montenegro (including Yugoslavia prior to February 2003), and currently plays for Australia. Her career-high ranking is No. 4 (August 19, 2002), but by the end of 2005 had slipped to 349th place in the singles rankings of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). As of October 16, 2006, Dokic is 620th in the WTA rankings.

Better recognized in the English speaking countries by her name without the diacritical mark, Dokic's career highpoint's include beating No. 1 ranked Kim Clijsters at the 2003 Zürich Open (October) as well as Venus Williams in 2000. She was ranked No. 4 in 2002 (a career high), No. 14 in 2003, and No. 25 in 2004.

1 Early years
2 Later years
3 2006
4 Performance timeline
5 Titles (9)
6 External links

[edit] Early years

Jelena Dokic was born and raised in Osijek, Croatia where she made first tennis steps, but her family fled to Sombor, Serbia in 1991 because of the Yugoslav wars. They moved to Australia in 1994, and Jelena played for Australia from 1999 to 2001. While in Australia, she lived in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield. She attended Fairfield High School.

Dokic burst onto the world tennis scene in 1999 Wimbledon tournament when, as an unseeded qualifier, she thrashed the No. 1 seed Martina Hingis in the 1st round 6-2 6-0; in a later round she thrashed 1995 Australian Open champion Mary Pierce in straight sets.

Following claims of irregularities in the 2001 Australian Open draw, her first-round loss to Lindsay Davenport and her father's ban from the tennis tournament due to abusive behaviour, her family moved to Belgrade and she began playing for her Yugoslavia.

[edit] Later years

She achieved plenty of success initially, winning 5 singles tournaments and reaching finals of another 7, but after parting ways with erratic father who was also her coach, her career problems began.

A string of disappointing 1st or 2nd round exits commenced as she clearly suffered from severe loss of confidence. No longer a part of her life physically, her father continued to be a presence as he publicly criticised her choices. At one stage, he termed her boyfriend Enrique Bernoldi, Formula One driver whom she lived with at the time, "an idiot".

In 2003, she hired Borna Bikić from Croatia to be her trainer (while simultaneously dating his brother Tin), contrary to the wishes of her father Damir Dokić on both accounts. Her tennis suffered and her slide down the standings continued.

In mid-2004, Jelena returned to her family in Serbia, trying to put her life back in order and regain confidence. However, the attempt was unsuccessful and in November 2005, after a turbulent period of 4-5 months during which she canceled all her tennis commitments and not even her family knew her whereabouts, she returned to Australia proclaiming, "I want to play for Australia again".

[edit] 2006

Representing Australia for the first time in 5 years, Dokic received a wild card into the ASB Classic, Auckland in January. Dokic started well winning the first set 7-5 before losing a tight second set in a tie-break. Dokic then capitulated in the deciding set losing it 6-1 in just 20 minutes. The end score was 5-7 7-6(3) 6-1. During the match, Dokic hit 51 unforced errors and 28 double faults.

Jelena then earnt a wildcard berth, allowing her to attempt a comeback at 2006 Australian Open. Jelena started off well winning the first set 6-3 against Virginie Razzano and lead 6-5 in the second set and held a match point on her opponent's serve. Jelena hit what she thought was a forhand winner and had her arms up in the air. The umpire later overuled the ball out. Jelena squandered another match points and lost a tight tiebreak. She then fell apart in the third set which she lost 6-1 to lose 3-6 7-6(6) 6-1. Jelena hit over 70 unforced errors during the match.

Up to the end of 2005, Dokic was estimated to have earned over $3.7 million in prize money.

In January 2006 the media reported that she is no longer in contact with her father and that she hasn't spoken to him in years.[1]

On 10 April 2006, after 3 more months away from the game, Dokic played another installment of her ill-fated return to tennis. This time she was soundly beaten 7-5 7-5 by 18-year-old, 709th ranked Eleonora Punzo in the first qualifying round at the ITF circuit tournament (level below WTA tour) in Biarritz, France.

In May 2006 the media reported that she was training in the Iva Majoli tennis academy.

In June of 2006, Jelena Dokic turned down a wild card in Zagreb and instead played in the qualifying rounds of the $25K event in Gorizia. She upset the sixteenth seed Michaela Johansson, then followed it up with two wins over Giulia Gatto-Monticone and world number 325 Olga Panova. She then managed to win her first round match against Maria-Vanina Garcia-Sokol, then unfortunately Jelena ran out of steam and went down to the Romanian Madalina-Victorita Gojnea.

Later that month, Jelena played at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships. Jelena gained entry into the qualifying draw via a wild-card entry which the All England Club provided for her because Jelena was a former top 5 player and she is a former Semifinalist at the Championships. However, Jelena's run came to a quick halt when she was defeated in the first qualifying 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2 round by Alexandra Stevenson after serving for the match at 6-4 5-4.

She then declined a main-draw wild card in Martina Franca, Italy and pulled out of tournaments in Heichengen, Germany and Rimini, Italy.

Under the guidance of new coach Nikola Pilic, after over 3 months away from the tour due to injury, Dokic qualified for a $10K tournament defeating Mika Urbancic of Slovenia 3-6 6-2 1-0 ret. (wrist injury) and Lynn Blau of Luxembourg 6-0 6-0. In the main draw, Jelena struggled, but came through against 664th ranked Danielle Harmsen of the Netherlands winning 6-3 4-6 6-4. Jelena then made the quarter finals of the $10K tournament after defeating unranked 15 year old Wildcard Nikola Hofmanova of Austria 6-4 6-1. Jelena made it to the semi finals after defeating German Sabrina Jolk 6-4 6-2 in the quarter finals. However she was defeated at the semi final stage by Astrid Besser of Italy 3-6 6-3 7-6(5). Besser went on to win the final.

In late November, Jelena was said to have been kidnapped by the Bikics and taken away from the Niki Pilic academy in Munich. However it was later reported that she went to Zagreb to get clothing sponsors. In her interview she said she will not play in the Australian Open because she is not ready and her aim is to get back into the top 30. Shortly after, Jelena did leave the academy forever. Jelena was soon to sign a contract to be in the academy for 1 year but she returned to Borna Bikic as her coach for the time being. Jelena said she was not satisfied with the contract Pilic's academy offered her.

[edit] Performance timeline

Tournament	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	Career
Australian Open		1r	-	-	-	-	1r	1r	3r	-	0
French Open		-	-	1r	2r	QF	3r	2r	1r	-	0
Wimbledon		-	-	1r	3r	4r	4r	SF	QF	-	0
U.S. Open		-	-	1r	2r	2r	4r	4r	1r	-	0
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	0-1	0-0	0-3	4-3	8-3	8-4	9-4	6-4	0-0	35-22
WTA Tour Championships		-	-	-	-	QF	QF	-	-	-	0
Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo		-	-	SF	QF	2r	-	-	-	-	0
Indian Wells Masters		-	-	2r	2r	3r	-	3r	-	-	0
Miami Masters		-	-	4r	QF	3r	QF	2r	-	-	0
Family Circle Cup, Charleston		-	-	2r	QF	2r	1r	QF	-	-	0
Qatar Telecom German Open, Berlin		-	-	1r	3r	3r	2r	-	-	-	0
Rome Masters		-	-	1r	1r	3r	W	QF	-	-	1
Acura Classic, San Diego¹		-	-	-	3r	F	3r	-	-	-	0
Canada Masters		-	-	-	3r	SF	3r	1r	2r	-	0
Kremlin Cup, Moscow		-	-	-	1r	2r	W	1r	-	-	1
Zürich Open		-	-	-	F	2r	F	2r	-	-	0
Tournaments played	0	7	6	16	30	29	26	20	14	1	149
Finalist	0	0	0	0	1	3	3	0	0	0	7
Tournaments Won	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	5
Hardcourt Win-Loss	0-0	0-2	2-3	2-6	15-14	19-10	26-11	15-13	3-5	3-1	85-65
Clay Win-Loss	0-0	7-4	4-3	1-5	8-9	20-7	16-8	9-4	6-5	0-0	71-45
Grass Win-Loss	0-0	0-1	0-0	0-3	2-2	8-2	6-3	6-2	9-2	0-0	31-15
Carpet Win-Loss	0-0	0-0	0-0	3-2	3-5	6-7	5-1	2-2	1-2	0-0	20-19
Overall Win-Loss	0-0	7-7	6-6	6-16	28-30	53-26	53-23	32-21	19-14	3-1	207-144²
Year End Ranking	0-0	617	349	125	15	9	8	26	43	341	N/A

Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-8 (quarter finals up to finalist).
¹ The San Diego tournament achieved Tier I status only in 2004.
² If ITF women's circuit (Hardcourt: 9-4; Clay: 13-8; Grass: 7-1) and Fed Cup (4-1) participations are included, overall win-loss record stands at 233-154.

[edit] Titles (9)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
Tour Championships (0)
Tier I Event (2)
WTA Tour (3)

[edit] Singles (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	May 20, 2001	Rome, Italy	Clay	Amélie Mauresmo	7-6(3) 6-1
2.	September 23, 2001	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario	6-4 6-2
3.	October 7, 2001	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Elena Dementieva	6-3 6-3
4.	April 7, 2002	Sarasota, USA	Clay	Tatiana Panova	6-2 6-2
5.	June 16, 2002	Birmingham, Great Britain	Grass	Anastasia Myskina	6-2 6-3

[edit] Singles finalist (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	September 16, 2001	Bahia, Brazil	Hard	Monica Seles	3-6, 3-6
2.	October 15, 2001	Zürich, Switzerland	Carpet	Lindsay Davenport	3-6, 1-6
3.	October 22, 2001	Linz, Austria	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	4-6, 1-6
4.	February 4, 2002	Paris, France	Carpet	Venus Williams	walkover
5.	2002	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Silvia Farina Elia	4-6, 6-3, 3-6
6.	July 29 2002	San Diego, USA	Hard	Venus Williams	2-6, 2-6
7.	October 13, 2003	Zürich, Switzerland	Carpet	Justine Henin-Hardenne	0-6, 4-6

[edit] Doubles (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	October 28, 2001	Linz, Austria	Hard (I)	Nadia Petrova	Els Callens & Chanda Rubin	6-1 6-4
2.	April 7, 2002	Sarasota, USA	Clay	Elena Likhovtseva	Els Callens & Conchita Martínez	6-7(5) 6-3 6-3
3.	August 11, 2002	Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Kim Clijsters	Daniela Hantuchová & Ai Sugiyama	6-3 6-3
4.	October 27, 2002	Linz, Austria	Carpet (I)	Nadia Petrova	Rika Fujiwara & Ai Sugiyama	6-3 6-2