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Lucie Safarova has ended Jelena Dokic’s time in Paris, defeating her 6-2, 6-2. Dokic had been hoping to be competitive, or find her form after nearly 12 months of injury, illness, drama and poor play. The error strewn match came at the worst possible time for Dokic, who has admitted she is struggling with the mental side of the game and had hoped that a good outcome at Roland Garros would be a sign of better things to come.
More worryingly for Dokic, there appears to be more personal issues holding her back. Her coaching team had previously been her long term boyfriend and his brother, who she credits with pulling her out of years of depression, the result of years of family issues. The brothers were accused of causing an issue on a flight in Australia earlier in the year that left Dokic in tears and publicly embarrassed. When asked if her coaching situation was the same, or if something had changed, she simply responded with “I’m alone.” Not a good sign for the former top player who relied on the stability the brothers provided.
“I was nervous at the beginning, so, yeah, she got a head start. About three games through past before I could get into some rallies… Yeah, outside of top 5, this is one of the worst match ups for me at the moment because I haven’t played any matches and she’s done so well on clay this year and just in general she’s done well this year. It was always gonna be tough. She’s just more consistent than me right now… Yeah, you know, there’s nothing really to be disappointed about. You know, I’ve played four tournaments this year, and I only played, you know, 50,000 coming into the Grand Slam. So I think I’m probably one of the least prepared players in the draw at the moment. I can’t be disappointed. I just have to move on from this and go to the next tournament.” – Jelena Dokic
>I hope Jelena can make it to the top levels again. She has lots of fans who are eager to see her once again in the mix with the best.
>She was so great last year at the Australian Open… So emotional… It's such a shame such talent has been wasted by what other people have done to her e.g. her dad