Comments on: Jelena Dokic angry for not getting the Australian Open wildcard

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:57:11 +0000

I'm so glad to be able to comment on this situation. Jelena Dokic is without question
the player with the most potential to do well
for TA. If they can't realize that then there
is an entirely different problem at hand. You
can not blame Jelena for leaving TA. She was
then under the control of her lunatic father,
and he was the one who made that decision for
her. She has been very brave to come through
what can only be described as an abusive and
possibly dangerous relationship at best. She
should have been given a wildcard into the main
draw at the AO, as well as any other tournaments
she wished to play in the Aussie summer series!
Additionally, when a player who was once ranked
4th in the world returns to competition, the WTA should have given her a protected ranking for a
certain amount of time like they've done for so
many others. While we are on this subject they
should have given Lindsay Davenport the same!
These are stars, drawing cards to the fans that
love the game. The more of them we have around
the healthier the sport of tennis is period.

By: debbie

debbie — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:16:43 +0000

I do not agree with Dokic – first of all she turned her back on Australia when she thought that playing for Serbia would give her more options – once she realised that was not so she suddenly expects TA to support her again! TA has invested a lot of money in Dokic and has, in the past, given her many chances. I agree with their point of view that young up and coming Australians should be given a chance – Dokic was given a chance to play in qualifying – I believe via a wild card – it is not TA's fault if she could not capitalise on this – they cannot play tennis for her.

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:20:03 +0000

I'm with Dokic on this one. The AO calls slots given following a competition "wild cards," even though they are not, by any rational understanding of the term "wild card." Then, to confuse things more, the AO says "Well, we DO have a few "discretionary" (i.e., real) wild cards. And yes, one of those should have gone to Dokic, in my opinion. But I think the whole AO system is off-kilter.