Junior career
Dokić was an accomplished junior player. In 1998, she won the US Open girls singles title and the French Open doubles with Kim Clijsters, ending the season ranked World No. 1 in the International Tennis Federation junior singles rankings and World No. 7 in doubles.
[edit] 1999
Dokić started the year by teaming up with Mark Philippoussis to win the Hopman Cup title. To date, it is Australia's lone victory at the event. She then received a wildcard into the Australian Open, winning two rounds before losing 6–1, 6–2 to world No. 1 Martina Hingis. At Wimbledon, Dokić made her professional breakthrough. As a qualifier, she caused one of the biggest upsets in tennis history, defeating World No. 1 Hingis 6–2, 6–0, in the first round. Ranked World No. 129 at the time, she was the lowest-ranked player to have defeated the top seed in a Grand Slam tournament during the open era. She also defeated ninth-seeded Mary Pierce in straight sets before losing 6–3, 1–6, 6–3 to Alexandra Stevenson in the quarterfinals. Dokić also reached her first WTA doubles final with Amanda Coetzer in Tokyo. During 1999, Dokić jumped 298 spots, finishing the year at World No. 43.
[edit] 2000
Dokić was defeated in the first round of the Australian Open by Rita Kuti Kis of Hungary, 6–1, 2–6, 6–3. After the match, Dokić said, "I lost to a player who has never been a player and, I guess, probably never will be." This assessment of her opponent resulted in many critical remarks about Dokić from the media and the tennis world.
During the spring clay court season, Dokić reached the quarterfinals of the Tier I events in Hilton Head, South Carolina and Rome (upsetting Venus Williams en route), as well as earning Fed Cup victories over Kim Clijsters, Anna Kournikova, and Sandrine Testud respectively. However, Dokić lost in the second round at the French Open.
Her successes at Wimbledon continued. She lost in the semifinals to Lindsay Davenport 6–4, 6–2. Jelena reached the fourth round of the US Open, where she lost to Serena Williams 7–6(7), 6–0 after holding two set points in the first set tiebreaker. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, representing Australia, she lost to Monica Seles in the bronze medal match 6–1, 6–4. In doubles, she teamed with Rennae Stubbs, but they lost in the second round. Dokić finished the year at World No. 26.
[edit] 2001
Beginning with the Australian Open, she began playing for Yugoslavia. Her father, Damir, claimed irregularities in the draw after her first-round loss to Lindsay Davenport and he was banned from the tournament due to abusive behavior. Damir later said "I think the draw is fixed just for her"[6] After the Australian Open, her family moved to the United States.
In May, she won her first singles title in the Rome Masters, defeating Amélie Mauresmo in the final, 7–6(3), 6–1. Later that year in doubles, she teamed with Conchita Martínez to reach the final of the French Open, where they were defeated by Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez in straights sets.
Later in the year, she reached five finals, winning two titles, in Tokyo (defeating former World No. 1 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario), and the Kremlin Cup (defeating Elena Dementieva). She also won her second title in doubles in Linz, with Nadia Petrova. She also qualified for the WTA Tour Championships in singles, reaching the quarterfinals. She finished the year at World No. 8.
[edit] 2002
Dokić reached the final of the Open Gaz de France, where she was forced to hand a walkover to Venus Williams, after her first victory over Monica Seles a day earlier, due to a right thigh strain suffered in her win. In April, she won her fourth singles title in Sarasota, Florida defeating Tatiana Panova 6–2, 6–2 in the final. At the Hamburg event, Dokić collected a 7–6(3), 7–6(3) win over Justine Henin, before having to retire in the semifinals. Dokić was unable to defend her Rome Masters title, losing to eleventh-seeded Anastasia Myskina in the third round. In Strasbourg, she reached her fifth final, losing to Silvia Farina Elia, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3. At the French Open, she was defeated by top-seeded Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals, 6–4, 4–6, 6–1. Dokić then won her fifth career singles title in Birmingham, defeating Myskina in the final 6–2, 6–3. She then lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon to Daniela Hantuchová 6–4, 7–5.
After Wimbledon, Dokić reached the final of the Acura Classic in San Diego, scoring her first win over Capriati in a three set match. In the final, however, she was defeated by Venus Williams 6-2, 6-2. She also reached the semifinals of Los Angeles, losing to Chanda Rubin, and Montreal, grasping a 6–4, 6–3 victory over Martina Hingis before retiring hurt against Capriati. Despite a 6–4, 6–2 loss to Elena Bovina in the second round of the US Open, Dokić reached her career-high singles ranking of World No. 4.
Dokić then reached the semifinals in Bahia and Tokyo. Dokić again qualified for the WTA Tour Championships, losing in the quarterfinals to Serena Williams 7–6(1), 6–0. She finished the year ranked World No. 9 in singles.
In doubles, Dokić won titles in Sarasota (with Elena Likhovtseva), Los Angeles (with Kim Clijsters), and Linz (with Nadia Petrova), as well as reaching the finals of Moscow and Zürich (both with Petrova). This success resulted in Jelena reaching her career high doubles ranking of World No. 10.
[edit] 2003
In 2003, she parted ways with her coach/father and hired Borna Bikić from Croatia to be her trainer. Her tennis suffered and her slide down the standings began.
A string of first or second round losses commenced as she clearly[citation needed] suffered from a 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, a former Formula One driver with whom she lived at the time, quoted: "an idiot".
She played matches at 30 events, reaching one final, one semifinal, and seven quarterfinals. At Wimbledon she narrowly lost in the third round 6-4, 6-4 to the new teenage tennis star, a 16 year old Maria Sharapova. However at Zürich, she beat the then World No. 1 player, Kim Clijsters, later to lose to Justine Henin in the final. She also reached a final in doubles, in Rome with Nadia Petrova.
[edit] 2004–2005
In mid-2004, Dokić 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, Dokić received a wild card into the ASB Classic in Auckland. However, she lost her first round match to Julia Schruff, 5–7, 7–6(3), 6–1, hitting 51 unforced errors and 28 double faults. Dokić then earned a wildcard berth at the Australian Open after winning the wildcard playoff. She held a match point on her opponent Virginie Razzano's serve and hit what she thought was a forehand winner, only to have the umpire overrule the ball out. She went on to lose the match, 3–6, 7–6(6), 6–1, hitting over 70 unforced errors. Later in the year, Dokić played in the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon, where she received a wildcard. However, she suffered a 4–6, 7–6(4), 6–2 loss to Alexandra Stevenson. Under the guidance of new coach Nikola Pilić, after over three months away from the tour due to injury, Dokić qualified for a $10,000 tournament and reached the semifinals of the main draw before losing to Astrid Besser 3–6, 6–3, 7–6(5). In late November 2006, Dokić denied reports from her father, Damir, that she had been kidnapped by her boyfriend, Tin Bikić.[7] In her interview, she said she would not play in the 2007 Australian Open because she was not ready and her aim was to get back into the top 30. Shortly after, Dokić left the Nikola Pilić tennis academy. She was due to sign a contract to be in the academy for a year, but she instead returned to Borna Bikić, her coach. Dokić said she was not satisfied with the contract Pilić's Academy offered her.
[edit] 2007
After withdrawing from several ITF events in the early months of 2007, Dokić lost in the early rounds of two $10,000 events in Rome. Dokić then continued to withdraw from events. Back in Australia on October 17, Dokić released a statement through Tennis Australia saying that she would be using their facilities in an attempt to make a successful comeback.[8] She said that she had not felt "within herself" to play during 2007 season but was now ready to put in the hard work necessary to get back to the top. She cited Mary Pierce, Jennifer Capriati, and Andre Agassi as inspirational figures for her to follow towards her goal of reaching the highest echelons of tennis once more. Dokić's long awaited return to tennis came during the Australian Open wildcard playoff, where she was hoping to earn a wildcard into the first Grand Slam tournament of 2008. Dokić emerged from the round robin stage with a 3–0 record before retiring in her quarterfinal match while trailing 6–3, 3–1 due to a thigh strain.
[edit] 2008
Dokić received a wildcard for the qualifications of the Moorilla Hobart International, where she won four matches to reach the second round of the main draw, where she retired in her match against Flavia Pennetta due to an ankle injury. Dokić received a qualifying wildcard into the Australian Open, where she lost in the second round.
After a three month layoff, Dokić finally returned to action at the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem tournament in Fes where she qualified but lost in the first round against Greta Arn.
She then entered the following week in a $25,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Florence, Italy, where she successfully qualified and proceeded to win the tournament, saving two match points against Mirjana Lučić in the quarterfinals and defeating seventh-seeded Lucie Hradecká in the final 6–1, 6–3. A week later, Dokić continued her winning streak by capturing the $25,000 ITF tournament in Caserta, Italy.
She was then offered a wildcard to the Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she lost in the first round to Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.
In July, she won her third $25,000 ITF in Darmstadt after winning the final 6–0, 6–0.
After a period with less successful results, Dokić took a temporary break and withdrew from all ITF tournaments during September and early October. She returned mid-October after being awarded a wildcard for qualifying into the Tier II Generali Ladies Linz tournament. There, she won her first round match against Petra Martić before losing to World No. 63 Jill Craybas in the second round.
In December, Dokic again played the Australian Open Wildcard Playoff event, where she emerged from the round-robin stage with a 2-1 record, subsequently winning through to the final playoff. In this playoff, Jelena played a tough match against Monika Wejnert, coming out a victor 6-7(3) 7-5 6-3 and earning a wildcard into the 2009 Australian Open [1]. After the match, Dokic said:
"Some players just don't have it mentally to go through all that hard work, which I find is not a problem with me."
—Jelena Dokic, [9].
During the Playoffs, Dokic stated in a press-conference that she has ambitions to play Fed Cup for Australia in 2009. Subsequent to the Playoffs, Dokic was awarded a main draw wildcard entry into the inaugural, 2009 Brisbane International event.
[edit] 2009
At 2009 Australian Open
Dokic has stated that she sees 2009 as her last opportunity to make a comeback in professional tennis. "I don't think I'm running out of chances, [but] I think if I do come back it will be this year, 2009. I don't think I'll push it any further than that if I don't … The time is not the problem, it's just the feeling whether I can do it, and it's a lot of hard work to put into it. Coming from zero, it's not easy to do."[citation needed]
Dokic was knocked out of the Brisbane International by Amelie Mauresmo in straight sets in the first round. Dokic was up 5–3 in the first set before Mauresmo came back to win the tiebreak 11–9. In the second set, Dokic was down 3–5 but rallied to lead 6–5 before Mauresmo won the set in a tiebreak, 7–5. Dokic then received a qualification wildcard into the Moorilla Hobart International tournament but withdrew before her first match because of an Achilles tendon injury.
Dokic won her first round match at the 2009 Australian Open against Tamira Paszek of Austria, 6–2, 3–6, 6–4. It was her first Grand Slam match win since 2003. She then defeated World No. 17 Anna Chakvetadze in the second round, 6–4, 6–7, 6–3 and 11th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round 3–6, 6–1, 6–2. This was the first time she had reached the fourth round of the Australian Open. Dokic then advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2002 after defeating 29th-seeded Alisa Kleybanova 7–5, 5–7, 8–6. Dokic's run ended when she was defeated by Dinara Safina in the semi-finals 6–4, 4–6, 6–4. Because of this tournament, her ranking improved to World No. 91.
In an interview after her first-round win at the Australian Open, Dokic said that she still has no contact with her father, but is building relationships again with her mother and younger brother, and that she has been dating her boyfriend, Tin Bikić, for five years.[10]
In Fed Cup, Australia was in the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I. Dokic defeated all three of her opponents in straight sets, Lee Jin-A of Korea, Suchanun Viratprasert of Thailand, and Diane Hollands of New Zealand. Australia advanced into the World Group II Playoffs in April. At the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, Dokic won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw, where she lost in the first round to top-seeded Wozniacki 6–1, 6–2 in 48 minutes.
Her next tournament was the BNP Paribas Open, a Premier Mandatory event in Indian Wells, California, where she lost to American Jill Craybas in the first round. Dokic received a wildcard for the main draw of another Premier Mandatory event, the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida.[11] She defeated Romanian Edina Gallovits in the first round before losing to 13th-seeded Wozniacki in the second round 6–3, 5–7, 6–2 on Wozniacki's fourth match point. Dokic withdrew from the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida[12] and the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, citing fatigue. Dokic then won the second singles rubber of Australia's World Group II Fed Cup quarterfinal tie against Switzerland in Mildura, Australia.
Dokić at the 2009 French Open.
Originally scheduled to play in the 2009 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in early May, she instead appeared as the number 1 seed in the $100,000 ITF event at Bucharest[13] but lost in the semifinals to Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 3-6, 6-1. She then participated on the 2009 Warsaw Open[14], which was the last WTA Premier event before the French Open but lost in the first round to qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru. She then played the 2009 French Open. In the first round, she beat Karolina Sprem by 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, her first win in the French Open since 2003. In the second round she played world no.4 Elena Dementieva. She led by 6-2 4-3 before retiring due to a lower back injury. She also played doubles, partnering with Alisa Kleybanova, they defeated Petra Cetkovska and Carla Suarez Navarro in the first round. They were scheduled to play world no.1s in doubles, Cara Black and Liezel Huber, in the second round but withdrew because of the injury.
Her injury forced her to miss Wimbledon warming up tournaments, but Dokic still appeared at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. She lost against qualifier Tatjana Malek in the first round 6-3, 5-7, 2-6 after serving 16 double faults. Dokic was then diagnosed as suffering from glandular fever and had to withdraw from Swedish Open in Bastad. She was ordered to rest for another fortnight and planned to get back on court on hard-court tournaments leading up to 2009 US Open. [15] However, she didn't make any appearance at the 2009 US Open Series.
She competed at the 2009 US Open [16] but lost to Kirsten Flipkens in the first round. The week later, she played at the $100,000 ITF event at Biella where she is seeded fourth, but lost to Petra Martic in the second round. She then played at another $100,000 ITF tournament at Sofia but again lost in the second round to Andrea Hlavackova 6-1 6-4. Two weeks later she played at another $100,000+H ITF tournament at Athens, Greece. She won the tournament by beating Eleni Daniilidou 6-2, 6-1 in the final. This was her first title in 2009 and her most significant title since 2002.
Dokic then traveled to France to play ITF level tournaments, started with Joue-Les-Tours, a $50,000 event where she was the top seed. She advanced to her second final of the year but lost to Sofia Arvidsson by 2-6, 6(7)-7. She then played at Poitiers, a $100,000 ITF event, as the fourth seed. She made it to her third consecutive final and faced Sofia Arvidsson again. This time, she won the title 6-4, 6-4, clinching her second title in 2009.
Dokic finished 2009 ranked World No.56, her best since 2004.
[edit] 2010
Prior to the first Grandslam Event, Dokic participated in two Australian Open warm-up tournaments. Firstly, Dokic played at the 2010 Brisbane International where she lost to former world no.1 Ana Ivanovic by three sets, 5-7, 6-1, 3-6, in the first round. She then traveled to Hobart to play the Hobart International where she defeated Elena Baltacha 6-4, 6-2 in the first round but lost to second seed, Shahar Peer, in a disappointing second round match 2-6, 2-6 with Dokic making over 40 unforced errors. She was seen breaking down on court as well as crying after this match. As well as the singles, Dokic also participated in the doubles event at this tournament trying to start a new combination with compatriot Alicia Molik. However, the pair lost in the first round to Chan Yung-Jan and Monica Niculescu by 6(4)-7, 7-6(5), [10-2].
She then traveled to Melbourne to compete at the Australian Open. Dokic was defeated in the first round of the 2010 Australian Open by 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova, 6-1, 7-5. The lost caused Dokic's rank to drop to world no. 96. She also played doubles partnering with Petra Kvitova but the pair lost in the first round. In a recent article, Dokic decided to withdraw from Australia Fed Cup after dealing with emotions on and off court. However, Dokic stated "I have had a lot to deal with in my career but I am not done yet" and "I will be back".
Dokic withdrew from the international tournament, 2010 PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand and 2010 Malaysian Open due to some mysterious illness. She lost in the qualifying rounds of 2010 Monterrey Open and the first round of 2010 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. She was then offered a WC into 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami but declined it due to another injury. Jelena then continued to withdraw from WTA events in Marbella and Barcelona, Spain, and Fes, Morocco, still troubled by injuries.
In May, she played at an ITF 50,000 tournament at Prague where she was seeded third. She lost in the quarterfinals to Corinna Dentoni. Her next tournament will be French Open, where she will play 24th seed Lucie Safarova. Should she win this game, she may have to face 14th seed Flavia Pennetta in the third round and then 3rd seed Caroline Wozniacki, who she defeated in the 2009 Australian Open.
