Jelena Dokić hasn’t played tennis professionally for almost ten years, she works as a commentator at this year’s Australian Open. It was because of her appearance on television that she received many, as she says, “disgusting” comments aimed at her weight. Dokić objected to the posts on the Instagram social network.
“The most common comment was ‘What happened to her that she’s so big?'” she wrote. “I’ll tell you what happened. I find a way to survive, I fight. And it really doesn’t matter what I do and what happened, because size shouldn’t matter,” she added.
Dokić also mentioned that she will not be silenced by bullies. “I am here fighting for all those who have been humiliated and abused,” she wrote. “I can’t change the world, but I will continue to speak out, to point out such behavior. I will use my platform to do something good, support others out there and give them a voice. Trying to make others feel less alone and less scared,” she concluded.
Jelena Dokić ended her tennis career in 2014, after she managed to reach several career peaks, CNN reminds.
In 1999, at the age of sixteen, she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, and a year later she finished in the top four at the same tournament and represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Sydney. In 2002, she became the fourth-ranked player in the world after reaching the quarterfinals at the French Open.
But she paid for her success on the court with her mental health. In 2018, the tennis player’s autobiography titled Unbreakable was published for the first time, in which she describes what happened against the background of her brilliant career.
Dokić writes about the physical, verbal and mental abuse she allegedly faced from her father and former coach Damir Dokić. In 2002, she cut ties and, as she described it, left in the middle of the night with only a bag of tennis rackets and a suitcase.
CNN asked Dokić for a comment after the publication of the memoirs, but he did not respond. In 2009, he stated for the Serbian daily Blic that there is no child whose parents do not beat him, and it was the same with Jelena.
Dokić also previously admitted that she struggled with mental health for a long time. Last June, she posted a video on Instagram where she revealed that she had contemplated suicide. But she said professional help saved her in the end.
