Demon dad lashed me, Dokic says
TENNIS star Jelena Dokic claims her dad would whip her with a belt if she failed on court. In an explosive autobiography Unbreakable, the former world No4, says her “tennis dad from hell” Damir Dokic subjected her to 13 years of shocking abuse from when she was six. The Aussie player, now 34, originally from Yugoslavia, alleges he would whip, beat and spit at her – once battering her so badly she lost consciousness. He would also call her a “slut” and a “whore”. She escaped home at 19. In 2000 he was kicked out of Wimbledon for smashing a journalist’s phone and abandoned her after she lost a semi-final. She said: “Not just the physical pain but the emotional [pain], that was the one what hurt me the most.” Mr Dokic, who lives in Serbia, was jailed in 2009 for threatening the Australian ambassador in Serbia with a hand grenade. He did not respond to attempts to contact him.