Jelena Dokic will warm-up for the 2010 Australian Open, hopefully equally successful for her as the last one, at the January 8-16 Moorilla Hobart International.

At the 2009 Australian Open the former world No.4 reached the quarterfinals as a wildcard and 187th-ranked player, defeating three seeded players on the way. Since that unprecedented success Dokic hasn't made such major headlines concerning her on-court results, but she did win two ITF tournaments, in Athens (Greece) in September and Poitiers (France) in October.

The 26-year-old Dokic is currently ranked 57th. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Share This

Teerin would like to have been able to include more memorable situations, but YouTube videos can't be more than 10 minutes long. Which WTA moments would you add to Teerin's Top 10? I would include the emotional retirement of Ai Sugiyama and also, I would put Kim Clijsters' US Open win on top of the list.

Teerin, thank you so much for your continuous and active support of Women's Tennis Blog.

Share This

The 26-year-old committed 41 unforced errors, nine double faults and no aces in the match against the 93rd-ranked Flipkens.

Dokic had a spectacular career revival at the start of the season, but later had to make another break from tennis, because of mononucleosis.

Despite yet another disappointment and unlucky course of events in her career, Dokic is determined to rebound and play well the rest of the season.

"It counts how many times you get up, not how many times you fall down," said the Australian. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Share This

Williams had a much easier time in the second round than in her first-round match when she needed nine match points to get through a three-setter. Interestingly, the American believes her game is much better now than when she won four consecutive Grand Slam titles in 2002-03.

The 'Serena Now' would definitely beat the 'Other Serena,' just in general. I'm older. I think I'm wiser. I think I'm just a more mature player. Back then, it was more nitty-gritty. And now it's more composed and planned-out playing.

Jelena Dokic progressed to the second round, and it’s very disappointing that she was forced to retire while leading by a set against Dementieva. Dokic left the court in floods of tears, after quitting with the score at 6-2 3-4 against. She appeared to pull something in her lower back at 2-2 in the second set.

Dementieva was full of sympathy for her distressed opponent and even said: "I didn't deserve to win this match." (sources: FOX Sports, Reuters; photos: Stephane Martinache)

Share This

As the first round came to a conclusion, No.5 seed Sara Errani of Italy rallied from 4-2 and 5-3 down in the third set to edge qualifier Greta Arn 6-2 1-6 7-6(2), while No.6 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia came from 6-3 3-1 down to beat Nuria Llagostera Vives 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Former world No.4 Jelena Dokic, now ranked 72nd, still hasn’t added up to her more than sensational run to the Australian Open quarterfinals. Since then, the Australian hasn’t made a better result than the second round of Miami, and today at Warsaw Open she lost in the first round to qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-4 6-3.

The entire second round will be played on Wednesday, and the most popular participant at the tournament, Maria Sharapova, will have a first career meeting with lucky loser Darya Kustova. Sharapova will play only her second singles match after a nine-month injury layoff. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Share This

The once-again-tennis-star is on the cover of the issue and I absolutely love that she is back in the tennis world, and also active in common off-court activities such as photo shoots.

By the way, I have to mention that Jelena’s father Damir Dokic was arrested on Wednesday for threatening the Australian ambassador to Serbia and is facing up to three years in prison.

Now, forget about Damir and enjoy the pics!

You can see more photos over at Sport & Style.

Share This

Statements by Jelena Dokic surfaced yesterday, revealing that she was physically abused by her father as a child. The full story will be available on Thursday, in Herald’s Sport & Style, but we already have complications.

Damir Dokic, who by the way hung up when contacted by the Herald, threatened the Australian ambassador in Belgrade that he would blow up her car with a grenade launcher if she didn’t do something about the interview.

According to Serbian paper Blic, Damir confirmed he made the threatening phone call, and claimed that the article about his abusiveness was full of lies and that the ambassador had to fight that as a representative of a country.

"Ambassador is a representative of a country and has to react, to call the Information Minister and take all the steps so that the person who launched the text full of lies could be punished," said Damir.

"I’m fed up with that country launching lies that ruined my family, primarily my daughter Jelena," he added.

Oh come on, this man doesn’t seem aggressive at all. I can’t picture him physically abusing his daughter. It's irony, guys. And also, what does poor ambassador have to do with Damir's personal problems? Oops, I should be careful with Damir, I may be his next target. You never know.

Helpful info: Dokic was born in the former Yugoslavia, but migrated to Sydney with her family as a child and represented Australia at the 2000 Olympics. She renounced her Australian ties in 2001 to move back to Serbia, then decided to begin competing for Australia again in 2006. (via Off the Baseline)

Share This

We could see the 25-year-old Dokic dressed in Lacoste at the ongoing Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, where she reached the second round, but her further progress was stopped there by Caroline Wozniacki.

After becoming the most-talked about person at this year’s Australian Open, Dokic, who is now represented by management giant IMG, also entered into a lucrative arrangement with Australian budget airline Jetstar. (source: The Age, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Share This

The 2009 Australian Open quarterfinalist, who has risen from No.178 to No.80 in the rankings this year, lost in straight sets to 34-year-old American Jill Craybas 6-4 6-2.

Dokic said she may have been mentally beaten before taking the court against Craybas. The Australian also said: "I'm really, really struggling mentally. I need to just settle down and get myself together again."

In her only other outing since Melbourne, the 25-year-old Dokic was defeated in the opening round of Memphis by top seed Caroline Wozniacki. (source: ESPN, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Share This

I am sorry that Dokic lost, because she clearly had a chance to win. On the other hand, I’m happy the match was a close three-setter and Dokic’s extraordinary Australian Open run ended in style. Safina deserved to win, and I’m looking forward to watching her play against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals.

Safina got to a 2-0 lead in the first set, but in the sixth game Dokic managed to return that one break. At 4-4, Dokic’s serve was broken again, and Safina quickly served out for the set in the following game.

Dokic won the second set after many ups and downs. Most notably, she didn’t win the set on her own serve at 5-4, but Safina lost the following game, handing Dokic the win by double-faulting.

In the third set Safina established an early lead, 2-0, but later in the set Dokic leveled at 4-4, and even earned two successive break points in the following game. However, the world No.3 Safina won the next two games to reach her third Grand Slam semifinal.

Dokic, currently ranked 187th in the world will move into the Top 100 when the new rankings are released. I can’t wait to watch her showing her heart of a champion in more tournaments.

As for Safina's match-up with Zvonareva, Zvonareva won their last three encounters, and all the three took place last year, on hard surface, while Safina leads their overall head-to-head record 5-4. (photos: Getty Images)

Share This