Disgraced Damir Dokic has struck out at his daughter Jelena through a magazine interview a week after she crashed out of the Australian Open.
Jelena Dokic’s career has been a study in strife, with her father a key reason for her downfall. The 26-year-old was coached as a teenager by her now-jailed parent, but has not spoken to him since 2005 and remains estranged from the most of her family, reports indicate.
But Dokic has taunted his daughter from a Serbian jail, where he is serving a 15-month sentence for threatening to kill the Australian ambassador to Serbia.
“My desire for her is to shine again,” Dokic told Women’s Day magazine. “I would like her to be number one.”
But he added that it would be impossible for her to recover without his guidance.
Dokic, ranked 56th, has had a patchy return to tennis over recent seasons, reaching the Australian open quarter-finals a year ago but falling at this edition in the first round in a disheartening performance.
rounak