Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story
Starring Jelena Dokic
Written and directed by and
In cinemas on limited release
As a teenager I dreamed of becoming a tennis champion and played every weekend. My prized books from school were about Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall and improving my tennis. One year, during the school holidays, I entered a local tennis competition. In the first round, I was beaten 6-0, 6-0 by a girl possibly a year younger than me. That finished me; I gave up any idea of a tennis career. But I loved the game and kept playing on weekends, reaching A Reserve in a mixed team. I watched Wimbledon and the Australian Open every year.
So I remember Australian newcomer Jelena Dokic. She had won 18 Australian national championships by the age of 11 years. She made the quarter finals at Wimbledon in 2000, at the age of 17. I was a little jealous but I admired her, a brilliant, talented player. I also remember the fuss when she changed her Australian nationality to Yugoslavian in 2001 and her fans booing her at the Australian Open because of it.
Years later, in 2022, I turned on the TV to see that Dokic was an official commentator for the Australian tennis championships. She looked very different, no longer the small, thin, fit player. However her commentary was so knowledgeable, so incisive about all the top players: men and women. In her analysis, she was able to clearly discern how the loosing player could change their tactics and game plan to turn the tables around. Her interviews with top players were amusing, extracting personal insights. She was described by her colleagues as being able to 鈥渢alk underwater鈥.
I wondered what had happened to Dokic in the intervening years and when I read her book, Unbreakable, I was gob-smacked. It details the violent beatings, bashings and verbal abuse she endured at the hands of her father, Damir Dokic, from the age of 6 years old, when she first picked up a tennis racket, until she left home at 19.
Damir, a former truck driver, forced Jelena to sign over all her earnings to him, leaving her with nothing. He also forced her to change her nationality, as he thought Yugoslavia would pay her more to play.
The documentary film, Unbreakable, closely follows the book, with interviews with her coaches, other tennis players and Jelena herself. It deals with her father鈥檚 brutality, her mother鈥檚 silence, the blindness of tennis officials, and how she was almost driven to the edge in an Italian hotel 鈥 alone with no friends or family, forbidden by her father from speaking to her beloved, younger brother and mother.
Dokic鈥檚 achievements as a tennis player were overshadowed by her father鈥檚 alcohol-fuelled tantrums. At 16 years of age, she entered Wimbledon on a Wild Card and beat the women鈥檚 number one player, Martina Hingis, in the first round 鈥 the only time that has ever happened.
With Mark Philippoussis, Dokic won the Hopman Cup in 1999. She reached number four in the women鈥檚 ratings in 2002, at the age of 19. She could have gone on to become number one in different circumstances.
The film is a tribute to Dokic鈥檚 courage and resilience and an inspiration to any child or woman who has suffered from abuse or domestic violence, showing it can be overcome with help and perseverance.
Dokic has salvaged her self-esteem, confidence and self-worth. The film is well worth seeing, despite the inevitable sadness. You find out who the nice people are in the tennis world: Todd Woodbridge, Lindsay Davenport, her first coach Lesley Turner/Bowrey and her husband, Pam Shriver and her co-writer Jess Halloran.
Woodbridge introduced Dokic to commentating after she was unable to play again, due to injury. He recognised that she was very articulate, having seen it all from the inside.
Jelena now says that what is more important than winning a tennis title is talking about ending domestic violence, if it can save one life. She published her second book, Fearless: Finding the power to thrive, in 2023.