Unbreakable: How Jelena Dokic really feels about her infamously brutal tennis dad Damir

Jelena Dokic says people will find it hard to watch what happened to her. In a new film, the ex-tennis prodigy opens up on the horrific abuse she suffered from father Damir - though her feelings towards him are surprising.

The shocking details of how Australian tennis star Jelena Dokic was violently abused by her own crazed father have been made into a feature film.

But viewers should be warned. “Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story” hasn’t been softened up in the editing room to include a Hollywood happy ending.

Keep the Kleenex close by, because this Australian-made documentary isn’t for the squeamish.

Directed by Ivan O’Mahoney and Jessica Halloran, the chief sportswriter at The Australian, Unbreakable contains previously unseen footage and untold personal accounts that are raw and deeply confronting.

“It’s heartbreaking and I think people will find it hard to watch, there’s no getting around that,” Dokic told this masthead.

“They’ll find it horrific and very difficult and disturbing, but that’s what it’s about.

“We have to tell the hard stories. The day that we stop doing that, our lives and what we’re trying to achieve to change the world stops.”

Former tennis star Jelena Dokic is the subject of a new documentary, Unbreakable, exploring her brutal relationship with father Damir. Photo: Julian Kingma.

But it’s also an inspiring tale of survival with a powerful message of hope from Dokic herself, even though she was let down by so many people who could and should have done more: not only her abusive father Damir, but also the Australian public, tennis fans, sporting officials and the media who turned a blind eye to the way she was being mistreated.

Dokic doesn’t sugarcoat anything she went through.

In one of the most chilling scenes in the film, she looks down the barrel of the camera and recounts one of the sickening attacks she was subjected to from her brutal, drunken dad because she had lost a match.

“I remember he was so mad that he goes into the bathroom with me, locks the door, and he beat the crap out of me,” she said.

“He slammed my head against the wall multiple times. He was kicking me. My shins were so bruised, I couldn’t walk. He actually punches me in the head. And then I went unconscious for a little bit. He also stepped on my head as well.”

An upset Jelena Dokic with her father Damir, after he got into a dispute with officials during the 2009 US Open at Flushing Meadows. Picture: Charles Fowler

Feeling alone and helpless, at her lowest points, Dokic contemplated suicide.

Eventually, she split from her family and returned to Australia, opening up about the pain and torment she had endured under him since the Yugoslav Wars as refugees.

A prodigious talent who climbed to No. 4 in the world rankings, she made a successful comeback to the sport, and is now - aged 41 - an admired and respected broadcaster who maintains she holds no grudges.

“I don’t blame anyone. I don’t resent anyone. I definitely don’t hate anyone, never would,” she told this masthead.

“I’m not bitter about it. Even to my father, which people find surprising. But I don’t hate him. I don’t necessarily forgive him, but I don’t hate him.”

Jelena Dokic in her days as a tennis prodigy who rose to world No. 4. Picture: Supplied/Unbreakable

Despite its graphic content, Unbreakable is a documentary Australians need to watch.

Like Athlete A, the groundbreaking Netflix film on the American gymnasts who survived being abused by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, it is a story that needs to be told to protect other young women.

For too long, Australian sporting bodies have turned a blind eye to the abuse that vulnerable athletes have suffered under the outdated notion of winning at all costs.

Jelena Dokic was just a girl while enduring her father’s brutality. Picture: Supplied/Unbreakable

Tennis is not the only sport with dark secrets. Swimming, gymnastics, hockey and ice skating, as well as all the football codes, also have skeletons in their cupboards

That’s partly why Dokic agreed to let her haunting story be shown on the silver screen, even though she had to go it alone.

She never wanted to be a poster girl for abuse survivors but said she felt compelled to speak up because she knows there’s so many other young athletes who are unable to share their experiences for fear of repercussions.

Jelena Dokic with a young Roger Federer. Picture: Supplied/Unbreakable

“I’m very grateful (my story) has been received the way that it has and I’m very proud of it,” she said.

“It gave me a voice. It gave me the power to reclaim my life. I’ve never been happier. I was not silenced for the very first time in my life. And incredible freedom comes with that.

“I’m proudly standing up for everyone else that doesn’t feel like they can do it and have a voice. I can tell you there are many stories in tennis and other sports that are like this and they have been very afraid to speak up for that exact reason.

Jelena Dokic has bravely spoken out to help fellow abuse survivors. Picture: Supplied/Unbreakable

”Even though I was very proud of what I went through and survived, even as far back as 10 years ago in tennis and sport in society, if you spoke about domestic violence or abuse, you would be victim-blamed.

“And all that shame and stigma was put at the victims and survivors and not abusers. If you talked about mental health, everyone would call you crazy and so on and so on. And especially in sport, you always kind of felt like you had to be perfect …so this takes courage.

“I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor. But even more than that, I’m a thriver. I want people to look at me as a success story because I stood in the face of adversity and hardship when it wasn’t normal to speak up about this.”

- UNBREAKABLE: The Jelena Dokic Story will be in cinemas from November 7.

Originally published as Unbreakable: How Jelena Dokic really feels about her infamously brutal tennis dad Damir