More than 20 years have passed since Jelena Dokic was forced to turn her back on Australia and the consequent booing she copped from thousands of spectators at Melbourne Park.
In a tantalising radio interview ahead of the airing of the documentary Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story, set to be showcased on Nine on Wednesday night, the former tennis star reflected on her switch of allegiance from Australia to Yugoslavia and the callous reception she received at the 2001 Australian Open as a result.
She was only 17.
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"It was important for us to show [in the documentary] it was an extremely difficult and painful time for me," Dokic said on 2GB's Wide World of Sports when asked about the traumatic time.
"I don't like to say that I've got regrets or I'd like to take anything back, but having to change allegiances at the instructions of my father when I didn't know what to do [was painful].
Jelena Dokic in action during the 2001 Australian Open. Getty
"Who knows if I would survive a beating when I got back to the hotel room?
"And then also knowing that I would really get hammered by everyone like I did, 15,000 people booing me on Rod Laver Arena, but just in general: all of Australia and fans and media and sponsors, who I felt like not with my actions I let down, [but] because of my father … It's a part of my life and it shows that you never know what's going on behind closed doors, especially with domestic violence."
Australia was the Croatian-born Dokic's adopted homeland, but her abusive father, Damir, uprooted the family and dragged them to Yugoslavia, an eastern European bloc of nations that has since been broken up.
Jelena Dokic and abusive father, Damir. Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
When Dokic returned for the Australian Open in 2001, she was on the receiving end of vicious boos as she trudged out for her first-round match against American Lindsay Davenport.
Although Dokic lost the match, it was incredible that in those dark circumstances the precocious teenager took the first set off the 24-year-old second seed, just as it was amazing that she would soar to No.4 in the world rankings in the coming years.
In 2005, Dokic reverted her allegiance to Australia.
"I hope it [the documentary] inspires and I hope it motivates people in some way and that they can look at it as someone that's been through things that weren't easy, and I wasn't always thriving and, let's say, I've hit rock bottom quite a few times, and I can even say I probably was broken a lot of times," Dokic said.
"I just want people coming out of it going, 'If she can do it I can do it too'."
