Jelena Dokic...how sad.

[stotty]

I found this article on Jelena sad to read. During my so far 33 year coaching career I have come across a handful of cases similar to this. Fathers like Jelena's represent a tiny minority but are so damaging when they turn up. I can understand why no one reached out to Jelena as she herself looked serious and unapproachable. The irony is her father made her like that. So it was kind of a double whammy.

She was a sensation at Wimbledon when she burst onto the scene. Explosive and different.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42099735

[gzhpcu]

Poor girl. An extreme nutcase the father.

Some years back, I used to train with an ex-WTA player of about 25 years of age. One day, she was really feeling sick and told me while we were playing. Her horrible father would always sit and watch. I then stopped and said we should call it a day. Her father was furious with me and yelled at me saying to keep out of family affairs. She was grateful, but her father saw to it that we did not train together anymore...

[stotty]

Poor girl. An extreme nutcase the father.

Some years back, I used to train with an ex-WTA player of about 25 years of age. One day, she was really feeling sick and told me while we were playing. Her horrible father would always sit and watch. I then stopped and said we should call it a day. Her father was furious with me and yelled at me saying to keep out of family affairs. She was grateful, but her father saw to it that we did not train together anymore...

It can be so hard on children to have a father like that. I coached two brothers around 25 years ago who had a terrible father. He would verbally abuse them and humiliate them from the back of the court both in matches and lessons and squads. Neither boy had potential to go far but the father knew nothing of tennis. In the end I told the father the boys would only go so far and it would be better to back off and to let them enjoy tennis for what it is. He left the club and took his boys elsewhere.

The boys, now men in their 30's, live locally and no longer play tennis. Both of them are meek and lack confidence and, sadly, are still subservient to the father.

Thankfully cases like this are rare in the grand scheme of things.