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Jelena's not penniless or
getting married: Damir
DAMIR Dokic has huffed, puffed and blown down rumours that his tennis-playing
daughter Jelena is getting married or has been been left "desperate and
penniless" by her Croatian boyfriend Tin Bikic.
The maddest tennis dad of them all says the world No.615 is training at a camp
in Germany before her likely return to Australia to compete this summer. He's
also still keen to appear on Dancing With The Stars.
"No, no marriage, I know this," Damir told The Sun-Herald from his home
in Serbia.
"She is not getting married. She is playing tennis in Germany and wants to go
back to Australia to play.
"She hopes for wildcards in Australia. She wants to be in the Australian Open.
She will try to qualify if she has to.
"She has been injured but she is not giving up and she is not going to be a
wife. She wants to be successful again in her tennis and she will be."
Jelena, the Belgrade-born product of the Australian tennis system who reached
the world No.4 ranking before fleeing the country after a supposedly rigged
Australian Open draw in 2001, qualified for the 2006 event in Melbourne through
the wildcard play-off system.
Damir said he and his previously estranged daughter "were speaking again". He
was sketchy about the details but his 23-year-old daughter is known to be
working with Martin Ruthner at an academy run by noted Croatian coach and former
player Niki Pilic in Oberschleissheim, near Munich.
Contrasting reports last week suggested she was either planning to marry Bikic
or had split from him and been left "desperate and penniless". Devoid of major
sponsors and the kind of prizemoney she used to take for granted, Dokic will
have to dip into her own pocket if she ventures to Australia.
Unlike last year, when flights and accommodation were taken care of, a change in
Tennis Australia policy means achievements will be rewarded instead of
participation.
"She is not poor," Damir said. "But she is not rich."
Dokic won the Australian Open wildcard play-off last December, the first player
to have done so while wearing tracksuit pants.
She lost in the first round to France's Virginie Razzano and a seemingly
imminent career resurrection had gone up in smoke.
Since failing to qualify for Wimbledon in June, she's played only one satellite
event, at Darmstadt in Germany, where she reached the quarter-finals.
Damir was approached by Channel Seven last year to appear on Dancing With The
Stars.
He was offered a place to live in Melbourne and the use of a car throughout
filming of the show.
He was eager to participate but negotiations fell apart. He wouldn't mind
starting them again. "I dance good," he said. "Very good."
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