Jelena Dokic’s heartbreaking confession about her estranged father, Damir

Australian tennis great turned commentator Jelena Dokic has lifted the lid on her feelings towards her estranged father in a raw interview.

Jelena Dokic’s heartbreaking story of resilience has inspired Australians for many years, but in a new revelation this week the tennis great turned commentator said while she doesn’t hate her father she could never forgive him for the physical and mental abuse he put her through.

Dokic broke onto the tennis scene at just 16 years of age in 1999 as a qualifier at Wimbledon, where she stunningly upset tennis legend Martina Hingis before going on to reach the quarter-finals.

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The following year, she reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon - her best-ever Grand Slam result – but hidden behind the promising start to her career was a dark story that would eventually derail her career.

At the height of Dokic’s career, her father Damir made her turn her back on Australia and switch allegiances to Yugoslavia, which saw her booed at the Australian Open by Aussie fans who blamed her.

Dokic was born in Croatia when it was still part of Yugoslavia but moved to Australia with her family at age 11. It was a move she deeply regretted and never wanted.

From there on things went from bad to worse and as her promising career deteriorated with her father largely to blame, the tennis world began to wrap its arms around a broken Dokic, but it was only in the last few years that the depths of her abuse were actually revealed.

Jelena Dokic has opened up about the emotional and physical abuse she endured at the hands of her father. Image: Instagram

Jelena Dokic (r) with her father Damir Dokic in Melbourne 15 Jan 2001.

On the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast, Dokic detailed some of the horrendous abuse she suffered that had her believing her father may actually kill her.

“I was kicked and punched in the head so hard that it left me unconscious and navigating through that at home, but at the same time, putting on — let’s say a brave face — and being able to go out there on the court and perform,” Dokic said.

“I did leave home at the age of 19, escaped during a tennis tournament because the beatings were getting so violent and I didn’t know if I was going to survive the next one.”

However, despite being a victim, Dokic says she doesn’t want to be viewed as that but as a survivor who has become an undoubted success in the face of adversity.

Jelena Dokic is a beloved pundit and commentator. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

“I want people to look at me not as a victim, I’m a survivor, but most importantly, thriver, a success story,” Dokic said.

“I want people to go, ‘you know, she did it, I can do it too’.”

Dokic, who is now a beloved analyst and commentator, says she has not spoken to her father for a decade.

And while Dokic said she’ll never forgive him for what he did, she doesn’t hate him.

“People kind of say you have to forgive, not for your abuser or someone that caused you pain, but for yourself,” she said.

“But I’m not sure, for me anyway, I agree with that because I don’t necessarily have to forgive him to be able to move on. I think you have to accept the circumstances … accepting that that was my life, the cards I’d been dealt, that’s fine but I don’t hate him.

“Maybe that sounds weird, but I also don’t forgive him.”

She continued: “I have quite a few people that I know and friends that have been through sexual abuse and rape at a very young age.

“I’ve had this conversation with them and how do you ask them to forgive their abuser when someone’s done and taken something so important to them?”

Originally published as Jelena Dokic’s heartbreaking confession about her estranged father, Damir