Just how difficult became apparent after her first-round Australian Open win Monday, years after the antics of her father, Damir, last hit the headlines.
"It was real difficult to take all that, what was going on off the court, all the outbursts,'' Dokic said. "I played with huge pressure on my shoulders. I kind of just cracked by the time I was 19.''
The now 25-year-old Dokic revealed that she suffered from depression for two years, was estranged from all of her family, including her mother and younger brother, and didn't pick up a racket for seven or eight months in 2007 while she contemplated whether she could ever return to tennis.
"I had so much to go through while my dad was on the tour, I was just so young and just had no real idea what was going on,'' Dokic said after her 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over Tamira Paszek of Austria, her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam in three years.
In a sport that regularly spawns overbearing parents, Damir Dokic stood out from the rest.
He was ejected from a 1999 tournament in Birmingham, England, for calling club members "Nazis who supported the bombing of Yugoslavia'' and was subsequently arrested by police for lying down on a road.
The next year, he fought with a television crew at the Australian Open and smashed a journalist's mobile phone at Wimbledon.
He was thrown out of the U.S. Open after an argument over the price of fish and was barred by the Women's Tennis Association from attending tournaments for six months. And he implied that the Australian Open draw in 2001 was rigged against his daughter.
Damir and Jelena Dokic ended their coach-player relationship in 2003 when he called for her to undergo psychiatric and drug testing after she started dating a Brazilian race driver.
Ultimately, it took a huge toll on Jelena.
"I was trying, but ... not really there,'' Dokic said Monday. "I had other issues going on in my life, I think that was obvious. I battled severe depression for about two years, didn't play for months at a time. It was a tough time in my life.''
It all started off so rosy. She was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2000, losing in straight sets to Lindsay Davenport, but made bigger headlines the previous year when, as a 16-year-old qualifier, she beat No. 1 Martina Hingis in the first round.
Dokic, who has five career singles titles, saw her ranking plummet from a high of No. 4 in 2002 to 617 in 2006.
Last year, she slowly began a comeback, winning three second-tier titles and improving her ranking to 187.
Dokic moved to Australia from Europe with her family in 1994 but renounced the country in 2001 and took up citizenship in her native Serbia. She decided to play again for Australia in 2006.
In December, she won a wild-card tournament for Australian players to gain a spot in the Open.
There were plenty of anxious moments when she took the court against Paszek at a 10,000-seat arena Monday at Melbourne Park.
"It was a pretty big court for me to play on straight up,'' Dokic said. "I really played the big points well, which I'm really proud of.
"It's really a miracle for me, really emotional to win. What I had to go through, it's really great to have this win. I don't think a lot of people know what it means to me ...''
Her voice trails off, and tears well in her eyes. When she composes herself, she says that last year at this time, she gave herself six months to take one last crack at the game she loved.
"Just something clicked overnight,'' Dokic said. "I pretty much lost my family, had no one there, I was really struggling.
"People sometimes think you go off, you go on a holiday, you start partying and stuff like that. But it was not what happened with me. I wish it was.''
She started her comeback by just trying to get into condition.
"I said to myself at the end of 2007, I will really try to get back in shape and give it one more shot,'' she said. "It was just a matter of whether I would be mentally strong enough again to play at this level and to compete.''
While her tennis has improved, her family relationship is still tenuous.
"I don't talk to my father, I haven't for years,'' Dokic said. "I talk to my mom (Liliana). We're mending that relationship.
"The biggest thing I regret is my brother (Savo), who is eight years younger than me. I didn't have contact with him for years until the last 12 months. That was the hardest thing to deal with. But I still feel like I've lost them.''
She received emotional support from her boyfriend of five years, Tin Bikic.
"It was probably even tougher for him at times than it was for me because he had to watch me go through all that,'' Dokic said.
She's optimistic for the future.
"Even though I still get nervous in matches like today, I'm really enjoying to be here every day,'' she said. "I went through hell and back. This is hopefully a reward for me for everything I went through.''
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