Dokic: I'll Miss Olympics For Revenge
^{[Alain posted this on the mailing list mid-February]}

Australian teenage tennis star Jelena Dokic says she will almost certainly boycott the Sydney Olympics because she was "betrayed" during the recent Australian Open. The 16-year-old said her Olympic snub would be a payback to officials and media, who she said ruined her reputation.

"I'm 95% certain I'm not going to play in the Olympics, because of everything that happened to me over the summer ... it's my revenge," Dokic told New Idea magazine.

"I didn't feel like I was supported, no-one got behind me, and that really hurt me. I feel betrayed, ruined."

Australia's number one woman player, who made her name by knocking out top seed Martina Hingis in the first round of last year's Wimbledon, hit the headlines at the Australian Open in January when she lost the first round and then dismissed her opponent, Hungarian Rita Kuti Kis, as someone who was "never a player".

She was then reported in a Melbourne newspaper, the Herald Sun, as claiming her tournament draws had been rigged - a comment she denies making.

In the magazine interview Dokic said she did not regret her comment about Kis but wanted to clear her name over the draw-fixing accusations.

"I'm proud to play for Australia, and I'm playing for Australia in the Federation Cup," she said.

"But I feel I was attacked from all sides during the Australian Open and I'm very hurt and that's why I don't want to play (the Olympics), for revenge. Revenge to the Melbourne Herald Sun."

Dokic said winning Wimbledon was her dream, and that she and her family would probably travel to Europe for a holiday during the Olympics.

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