Former tennis ace and commentator Jelena Dokic has hit back at body shamers

Jelena Dokic has had enough of the critics and hit back at those commenting on her appearance and weight battle.

Former tennis star and commentator Jelena Dokic has hit back at body shamers, telling the critics of her appearance to “get over it”.

Dokic, the former world no.4, revealed early last year she had lost 53kg after tipping the scales at 120kg.

She admits she struggled with her weight during Melbourne lockdown.

“I am sharing this with you all because even though I have the best supporters in the world that send me thousands of messages of support, I have also received a few comments body shaming me and seen an article in the media about my weight and physical appearance,’’ she wrote in a candid post on Instagram.

Jelena Dokic Instagram post of her weight before and after

“I have always been honest with you all about my struggles and my weight battles.

“I have talked about my weight and not a lot of people have done that publicly.

“Now I am also going to be honest but I also feel like I need to address the negative attention around what people think I should look like.

“And here is my message to you, GET OVER IT.”

Dokic was back to her playing weight early last year, but she went on to ask people to leave her alone because no one knows the battles she is fighting.

“You would never talk like that about a man, it’s always about women and their appearance,’’ she wrote.

“While I am nowhere near my heaviest, I am also completely honest about the fact that I have put some weight back on in the Melbourne lockdown.

“It was very hard mentally for me in the world’s toughest lockdown for 6 months and not being able to see my loved ones in the last 15 months.

“I have even had some depression and anxiety issues creep back up and it’s been a battle.

“To all the body shamers, online trolls and the media that have body shamed me, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Dokic said her weight shouldn’t determine her worth and asked to instead focus on accomplishments. She received support from the likes of Rebecca Maddern, Mark and Silvana Philippoussis and Giaan Rooney.

Jelena Dokic interviews Serena Williams at the Australian Open. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

“It’s so easy to judge others but why can’t people just be kind?” she wrote.

“We should be talking about inner beauty of a person and not the shallow outside looks.

“Also I could be pregnant, or going thru (sic) something. You never know what someone is going thru (sic) what battle they are fighting.”

Dokic says she’s never been busier but would continue to work on her health and fitness so she could feel better and not look better.

Her professional tennis career was cut short in 2014 due to an injury and over the next four years, Dokic’s weight slowly crept up until she’d put on more than 50kg.

She revealed last year how she managed to overhaul her lifestyle after a battle with depression and after suffering abuse at the hands of her former coach and father, Damir Dokic.

“I just couldn’t enjoy life and that was when I realised I needed to take control of the situation, because it felt like I was out of control and I couldn’t control what was happening,” Dokic said in a previous interview with WHO.

She lost around 20kg herself and then enlisted the help of Jenny Craig.

“Battling depression is something that I’ve talked about in the past with everything that I went through, so for me mental health through it all has been really important,” she said.

“That’s where exercise has also been a key for me, because if it’s something that I can do a little bit of, almost every day, I feel a lot better.”