Dokic management hopes for Olympics appearance
^{By Chris Lines - February 8 2000}

Controversy is again courting Jelena Dokic, with a family holiday threatening to take priority over representing Australia at the Olympic tennis tournament.

The 16 year-old star is reportedly set to snub the Olympics to go to Europe with her close-knit family, adding a further page to her chapter of controversies in 2000.

Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard said to the best of his knowledge, "all Australians will be available" for national selection for Sydney 2000.

Dokic's agent John McCurdy, of management group Octagon, was not prepared to say whether the holiday or the Games will take priority, only confirming talks were ongoing.

"We're very supportive of Jelena representing Australia in the Olympics and we are discussing her future schedule at the moment and we're still hopeful that she'll be available," McCurdy said.

"We want her to play and we are very committed for her to do that and we're still hopeful."

Pollard does not foresee problems with national team availability in 2000 despite the addition of the Games.

"The year 2000 is especially challenging because the Olympic Games adds an additional two weeks to an already full schedule of tournaments and we are in regular communication with our players and are confident that national selection remains high in their priority and participating in the Olympics is a special personal goal," Pollard said.

The doubt over the Olympics extends Dokic's unfortunate start to 2000.

After a shock first-round loss to unheralded Hungarian Rita Kuti Kis at the Australian Open, she was pilloried for arriving late for her media interview and then being unusually blunt in assessing her opponent's ability.

Dokic then compounded the storm by accusing tennis officials of rigging draws to make it difficult for her to win.

The situation only worsened when Dokic's father Damir wrestled with a television camera-crew attempting to film the family.

After the Australian Open spats, Tennis Australia intended to help Dokic receive some counselling and some coaching independent of her father.

Tony Roche will step up his involvement with Dokic this year, travelling with her to every grand slam tournament as well as the Indian Wells tournament.

"He is actually spending a fair bit of time with her and Jelena is very self-motivated and doesn't need someone 100 per cent of the time," McCurdy said.

"Tony is very good for her, despite what a lot of people think."

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