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Dokic says she hasn't spoken to father for years
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-20 11:03

MELBOURNE, Australia - Jelena Dokic said Thursday that she has not spoken to her father in several years and is trying to distance herself from him.

Dokic, who lost her first-round match at the Australian Open, recently returned to Melbourne from her native Serbia-Montenegro, reversing a 2001 decision to leave Australia.

Damir Dokic, her father, was quoted in newspaper reports from Serbia that he planned to kidnap Jelena. He also threatened to kill an Australian who helped his daughter return to the country, and vowed revenge against the country by bombing it.

He apparently later denied making those statements when contacted by an Australian radio station.

On Thursday, Jelena Dokic, through her London-based management company, released a statement in Melbourne calling her father's comments "yet another unfortunate distraction around my return to Australia and competitive tennis."

"I have spent my life recovering from events such as this," she said. "I will continue to work very hard on getting back to the top of my game and putting comments like these firmly behind me."

The 22-year-old Dokic said she had not spoken to her father for several years, "and we do not agree on anything."

"This is not the first time he has made threats publicly to my well-being so I am not going to allow this latest episode to disrupt my future happiness," she said. "I wish to distance myself totally from his reported views."

Jelena Dokic said she has been encouraged by the reaction to her return. In her first-round loss, the Australian crowd at Melbourne Park was firmly behind her.

"I have been overwhelmed by the support and friendship I have been shown by the Australian public since I returned in December which has proven to me that the decision to come back was the right one," said Dokic.

A Wimbledon semifinalist in 2000, Dokic won a wild-card playoff for the Australian Open. She decided to play again for Australia after renouncing her former home in 2001 and taking up citizenship of her native Serbia-Montenegro.
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