Missing Jelena Dokic question divides Australian Open viewers

Jelena Dokic has stirred up one of tennis’ most divisive debates after the Aussie champ put on a show at the Australian Open.

Jelena Dokic showed her class again on Saturday night, but one missing detail has divided the opinion of tennis fans.

The Australian’s graceful post-match interviews have extracted several moments of gold from stars of the Open, including her dance-off with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

However, her late-night interview with American Madison Keys has breathed new life into the endless debate about what sort of questions players should be asked on court.

Keys was too strong for close-friend Danielle Collins in their third round match — much to the delight of the Australian crowd that booed Collins throughout the match.

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The one question missing from Dokic, much to the dismay of tennis traditionalists, was what the No. 19 seed actually thought of the match itself.

TV audiences for many years have been treated to cute interactions between players and the likes of Dokic and Jim Courier, but the light-hearted interview style also irks many — especially when it goes wrong and players are left looking red faced.

After seeing Keys triumph 6-4 6-4, coming back from 0-3 in the second set, plenty of fans, it seems, wanted to hear what Keys thought of her own performance.

Jelena Dokic had a clear connection with Madison Keys. Photo: X, AusOpen.

Jelena Dokic and Madison Keys entertained the crowd. Photo: X, AusOpen.

Instead of asking the serious question, Dokic asked the questions that entertained the spectators inside Rod Laver Arena — and those watching around the world.

Dokic started out by asking the 29-year-old what it was like playing her friend.

“It’s always difficult. We’ve been playing each other since we were 12 years’ old,” Keys said.

“We’ve had some battles and she’s such a fighter and always leaves everything out there. So it’s always difficult playing her.”

After asking about Keys’ impressive recent form, Dokic asked the two-time Aussie Open semi-finalists about her “married life” after she married her husband and coach Bjorn Fratangelo in November.

“So far so good,” Keys said.

“It’s good. I’m a pro now. We’ve been married for about two months so if you need marital advice just call me. I think I’ve got it figured out.”

Keys also responded to a question about the positives and negatives of being married to your coach.

“It’s good that we get to see each other,” Keys said.

“He used to play as well so we would go long times not seeing each other. So it’s wonderful seeing him.

“Having to admit that he’s right isn’t always my favourite thing. It happens a lot more than I want it to. I’m learning just to kind of nod and he knows I’m just saying, ‘Yeah, he’s right’.”

Dokic cheekily responded by saying “I can see you don’t like that”.

Aryna Sabalenka dances with on-court presenter Jelena Dokic. Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images.

The former Wimbledon semi-finalist has single-handedly made coffee a point of contention at Melbourne Park with her questions seemingly putting players in the hot seat in front of a city known for its self-proclaimed coffee connoisseurs.

When Keys praised Melbourne’s coffee and said she had “yet to have a bad coffee here”, Dokic finished the interview by saying, “I think you’ve just got yourself a few new fans”.

The quirky questions missed the mark in the eyes of some.

“Bizarre and pretty disrespectful,” one fan on the tennis Reddit page wrote.

“She just worked her ass off to close out a match by winning 6 out of the last 7 games and all you can ask about is how’s your new marriage and do you like your husband coach.”

Another wrote: “The non match-related questions are fun in early rounds to top seeds to show their personality, but now we’re getting into highly contested matches and it’s getting a bit obnoxious.”

One Reddit user commented: “I’m sorry but that interview was ridiculous. Almost no questions about the actual game itself.”

One wrote: “That interview from Jelena Dokic was cringe.”

Dokic makes no apology.

The 41-year-old has in recent years become one of the most popular sporting commentators in Australia.

She continues to be widely praised for bravely sharing her personal battles with mental health, social media abuse and body shaming.

The Australian tennis great’s transformation has inspired the nation, sharing the story of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, Damir Dokic, in two books Unbreakable and Fearless, plus a new documentary.

In December, Dokic delivered a moving hour-long address at the National Press Club in Canberra where she became the first tennis player to speak there since John Newcombe 40 years ago.

During her speech, Dokic explained why she won’t change her interviewing style.

The former world No. 4 said she always aims to strike a positive tone in her commentary and on-court post match interviews.

“You will never hear me say a bad word about a player who walks off the court after losing 6-0 6-0,” she said.

“I’ll say, ‘Not their day, it didn’t work out, got to look forward’. Always something like that, never criticise.

“It’s sometimes hard because you still have to put your expertise out there on perhaps what went wrong. But you can do it in a kind way.

“I actually had this conversation with Todd Woodbridge … I want this to be about kindness and (being) authentic and honest and to be raw.

“My interviews as well, there’s a reason why I don’t ask tennis questions. I go into other things and try and get players to feel comfortable and to open up.

“And now I’ll have to answer 20 of those in the media conferences. Little things like that.

“It all really started again with me going into it and going ‘these are my core values’. I wanted to do my commentary from the heart, with kindness.

“I’ll work on my craft as well. I can definitely say I wasn’t a good commentator six years ago. There’s no doubt about that but I worked on it.

“I pushed through and I’m honoured to be exclusively with Channel 9 now for six years. I was one of the, probably the first one to put my hand up and go if we’re doing men’s matches, can I try it? Can I commentate? I’m happy to do it.

“They gave me that opportunity and now I commentate men’s matches and I interview also men as well on court which doesn’t happen in every grand slam in every country.”

For the record, Keys was asked about her performance in her post-match media conference.

“I think I played overall pretty well,” she said.

“I think I definitely served really well, and I think I’m most happy with being able to kind of get back on track after getting broken early in that second set.”