The father of Australian tennis player Jelena Dokic has been detained in Serbia for allegedly threatening the Australian ambassador in Belgrade, police said on Wednesday.
Damir Dokic was detained in his home in northern Serbia, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said, adding that police have searched his house on Fruska Gora. He gave no further detail.
Serbian daily Blic on Wednesday quoted Damir Dokic as saying he had called the embassy and threatened to “fire a rocket” on the car of the Australian ambassador to Serbia.
Dokic told Blic that he was angry over an interview his daughter gave to Australia’s Sport & Style magazine in which she accused him of beating her.
Blic quoted him as saying that Jelena’s testimony was a “continuation of an attack on me, with a clear idea to kill me.”
But he added that “there is no child that was not beaten by parents — the same with Jelena.”
Serbian Interior Minister Dacic said police have an obligation to respond to any threats to foreign diplomats. He said Damir Dokic would be questioned by an investigative judge.
Jelena Dokic, 26, told Sport & Style that part of the reason she walked out on her family was to escape the mental and physical abuse she experienced.
“I’ve been through a lot worse than anybody on the [professional tennis] tour. I can say that with confidence,” she said in the interview. “There was a period where there was nothing that could make me happy. I wanted somebody’s else’s life.”
At the Australian Open earlier this year, she publicly revealed for the first time that she had suffered severe depression because of her family breakdown.
“Everyone has a different situation, different problem. No one really knows what I dealt with. I don’t know what others deal with,” she said.
Her troubles with her father began when she was just starting out on her professional career. Her blossoming career was constantly overshadowed by her father’s behavior and run-ins with officialdom, and it was not long until her life and game started to unravel.
The relationship turned sour when her family returned to Serbia in 2001 after her father accused Australian Open organizers of rigging the draw to ensure his daughter lost in the first round. In 2002, she walked out on her family and returned to Australia.
“When you go through stuff like that, playing a tennis match is a pretty easy thing to do. When I win today it’s so much more satisfying,” she said.
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