AUSTRALIA: JELENA DOKIC TO PLAY UNDER YUGOSLAV FLAG AT AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Record ID: 638346

  • Title: AUSTRALIA: JELENA DOKIC TO PLAY UNDER YUGOSLAV FLAG AT AUSTRALIAN OPEN
  • Date: 15th January 2001
  • Summary: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (JANUARY 15, 2001) (REUTERS) HEADLINE THAT READS IN ENGLISH "TEARFUL JELENA QUITS AUSTRALIA"
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZZHO3IBJQODWZLI45R3VRLZ4
  • Story Text: Australia's highest ranked women's tennis player, Jelena Dokic is to quit Australia. She plans to play under the Yugoslav flag at the Australian Open, which started in Melbourne today, and intends to move to Florida after the tournament.
    Jelena Dokic broke the news in an interview with an Australian newspaper on the eve of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
    In the interview, she announced her plans to play under the Yugoslav flag, claiming she felt betrayed by the Australian media and by tennis officials.
    The 17-year-old, whose father is banned from attending her matches, said she and her family would leave Australia after the tournament to live in Florida.
    Australian tennis officials accepted Dokic's decision to play as a Yugoslav rather than an Australian, signalling her rocky relationship with her adopted home was over.
    Tennis Australia said it would amend the draw to recognise her choice of citizenship.
    Dokic was born in Yugoslavia but moved to Australia with her family in 1994. She carries dual citizenship after she received a Yugoslav passport in Belgrade last November, not long after she represented Australia at the Sydney Olympics.
    Dokic's father Damir reacted angrily on Friday (January 12) after his daughter was drawn to play defending champion and world number two Lindsay Davenport of the United States in the opening round.
    Damir Dokic said Jelena had been in tears after the draw and suggested the draw had been rigged against his daughter.
    Unseeded players such as Dokic are drawn at random according to a computer programme.
    Dokic's made similar claims after being handed a tough Australian Open draw last year.
    Damir Dokic was banned from the women's tour for six months after he was forcibly removed from the U.S. Open in August for verbally abusing staff in the players' lounge.
    Before the U.S. Open incident, sparked by a dispute over the price of a plate of salmon, Damir Dokic was barred from Wimbledon last June after causing disturbances and breaking a journalist's mobile phone. He was also involved in a scuffle with a television crew at last year's Australian Open.
    Last November he vowed to moderate his behaviour in the interests of his daughter's career before creating more headlines when he flew to Belgrade to apply for a Yugoslav passport, vowing to one day turn his back on Australia.
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