Talk About Tennis 2.0

Ring-tone deaf?

good riddance!

Vision?

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri May 16, 2025 4:09 pmVision?

He disappeared the WTA better than anyone could've. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out Steve-o.

reachforthetop9
•
4h ago
They're adding them to the lower levels by demolishing and completely rebuilding the lower deck and suite levels. I suspect, based on the artist impression, that they're going to lower the court, rebuild the sideline seating with a uniform rake, and have a steeper rake on the baseline seating.

Hard Rock Stadium did something similar in 2012 after the Marlins left, as did the Superdome in New Orleans after Katrina and (as far as the lower deck was concerned) attendant flooding.

Jelena Dokic's father and ex-coach Damir Dokic dies

By Daniel Jeffrey
7:27pm May 21, 2025

Damir Dokic, the father and former coach of Australian tennis player and commentator Jelena Dokic, who gained notoriety for his abusive and violent behaviour, has died.

Jelena Dokic announced in a social media post this evening that her father died on May 16.

While the former tennis star has previously revealed she had been physically and emotionally abused by her father, she said she was choosing to focus on good memories in the wake of his death.

"My relationship with my father has been difficult and painful with a lot of history," she said.

"Despite everything and no matter how hard, difficult and in the last 10 years, even non-existent our relationship and communication was, it is
never easy losing a parent and a father, even one you are estranged from.

"The loss of an estranged parent comes with a difficult and complicated grief.

"It's an end of a chapter and life as I know it.

"There are lots of conflicting and complex emotions and feelings for me...

"Especially important to who I am as a person and what I want to stand for, which is respect, grace, kindness, dignity and empathy, I will and want to be that person in this situation too."

Jelena accused her father of committing years of physical and mental abuse against her in her 2017 autobiography Unbreakable.

"It basically started day one of me playing tennis," she said when the book was released.

"It continued on from there. It spiralled out of control."

She wrote that Damir's abuse included beating her to the point of unconsciousness following a loss at the du Maurier Open in Canada in 2000, repeatedly whipping her with a leather belt, and hurling vile slurs such as a "slut" and "whore" towards her as a teenager.

Damir was also known for his violent and threatening behaviour towards others.

In 2009, he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for threatening to kill the then-Australian ambassador to Serbia with a grenade launcher after heavily armed police arrested him and confiscated an arsenal of weapons that included two homemade bombs.

He claimed the threat was a joke and the bombs a souvenir from the Croatian War of Independence, which he fought on the side of Serbia in.

The Dokics arrived in Australia from Yugoslavia in 1994, and Jelena reached a career-high tennis ranking of no.4 in the world for her adopted country aged just 19, before Damir forced her to switch her allegiance back in 2001.

Jelena said last year she would endure "100 years of abuse" to reverse that decision.

She also revealed she hadn't spoken to her father in 10 years, but that she didn't hate or resent him.

"I'm not bitter about it," she said.

"Even to my father, which people find surprising. I don't necessarily forgive him, but I don't hate him."

https://www.9news.com.au/national/damir ... 3263e32385

Grief is a complicated thing. I hope she gets help to navigate those waters.

I hope Jelena's father's death fully liberates her from that horrible man.

I have a family member that has been less than caring for the family. The day s/he dies, I will cry and mourn.
But s/he won't be missed.
Hope Jelena can handle the proper balance.

I don't know... When my oldest brother died, I had absolutely no problem saying to myself, "The world is a better place without him in it." No grief involved. And there was a lot of personal peace to be had in that conclusion. Of course, my mother and his children processed it quite differently. And that's just fine, and I did everything I could to help them process it in their own way.

In better health news, Venus has launched her own line of vegan protein powder—thus may be old tea, but it has just started jamming my Instagram ads recently.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 12:44 pm Davide? Sorry, missed that part.
It is not a matter of same wavelength. By now, you know that what I don't like is when decisions of this caliber are made based on "facts" that are not clearly established. Elena keeps defending him, which I find odd, but that was not a menial detail. With this info, the decision can be understood as a proper one.
I especially dislike the comments about him belittling her intelligence. So, with new data, I accept that this is correct.

I am just catching up, I was pretty much ignoring any news in January - March for my own mental health and fully missed the details regarding the Vukov suspension. It's a bit upsetting it took 3 years to act since he was first reported.

I just wanted to comment on this highlighted piece, because, unfortunately, Elena coming to his defense is not rare at all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_woman_syndrome

Some interesting fan comments re Sabalenka

The problem with Sabalenka other than playing low IQ tennis is she can't keep her focus in big tournaments. She's too busy chasing cameras and media attention trying to get something she's never going to get. Saba if she was smart which no one has ever accused her of being would just focus on tennis and leave the endorsement, brand building stuff alone. That's NEVER going to be there for her.

Food for thought for Sabalenka. Yes Zheng won the Olympics gold but lets be real the Olympics isn't a big thing in tennis. Outside of that Zheng has never win a WTA 1000 title let alone a slam and yet she made twice as much in endorsements as Sabalenka who had a two slam year. If that doesn't crystalize things for Sabalenka I don't know what will. And no amount of "hating" is going to change that.

She fired her agency and seem to carry a lot of hate in her heart. It's not going to help. Envy and jealously never does. Yes Novak Djokovic used his envy of Federer and Nadal to become the GOAT. Will not work for Sabalenka.

Crude.
But, as you say, this may be interesting.
And the Zheng comparison is wrong. Zheng is a citizen of the largest market in the world, plus is a gorgeous young woman (Saba is too). But nobody cares about Belarus, where probably 25 people play tennis in Minsk during the summer. So the endorsement issue will never be a proper gauge.