Damir Dokic faces ban from women's tour
^{By AAP - August 31 2000}

The controversial father of Australian teen tennis star Jelena Dokic could be banned from the women's tour after today being barred from the US Open.

The Serbian-born former truck driver was forcibly removed from Flushing Meadows after an obscenity-laced tirade, which started with his complaint over the price of food in the players' lounge.

Dokic, described as one of the worst examples of the interfering "tennis dad from hell", had been ejected from two of his 17-year-old daughter's previous tournaments, at Wimbledon this year and Birmingham last year.

Unlike on those two occasions, he did not appear drunk in today's incident, which was witnessed by hundreds of fans, and which ended when he and his daughter were driven away in a tournament courtesy car.

Only two weeks before she is due to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, Jelena now faces the prospect of her father being banned from accompanying her at tournaments.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) released a statement saying: "Based upon Mr Dokic's past history of such incidents, a formal review is being conducted to determine what additional action will be taken by the Tour. The Tour will announce its decision shortly after the US Open."

Witnesses said Dokic, 41, had first started complaining loudly over the price of food and as his tirade continued, security was called.

Dokic, who moved his family to Australia in 1994, was then escorted out of the centre by a security guard while yelling obscenities.

Television pictures showed Dokic walking backwards with his arms raised and shouting, while being occasionally pushed in the chest by the guard.

Jelena, a first round singles winner here yesterday who had played a doubles match this morning, followed the debacle a few metres away in silence, even when her father ripped off her security pass and threw it to the ground.

After a brief attempt to re-enter the complex, Dokic and his daughter were provided a courtesy car, which drove them away from the complex.

A statement released by tournament director Jay Snyder said: "Damir Dokic, the father of Jelena Dokic, was removed from the grounds as a result of abusive behaviour in the player lounge earlier today.

"He will not be allowed back on the grounds for the remainder of the US Open."

The expulsion from the whole tournament of Dokic Snr -- who was only banned for the day at Wimbledon -- will come as a major blow to the hopes here of Jelena, who made the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

Only yesterday, after her first round win over Israeli Anna Smashnova, Dokic said that despite the history of controversy associated with her father, she still valued him as mentor and coach.

"It just feels good because I know what we're trying to do," she said.

"It's always good to have somebody like my dad who's in the family and not have anybody from the (outside) doing anything."

The incident overshadowed good results for Australia's only two players in first round singles action on day three of the Open.

Mark Philippoussis beat Spain's Albert Portas 6-3 6-2 6-3, while Richard Fromberg defeated Swiss George Bastl 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-2.

The Dokic flare-up was the latest dramatic twist in a long history of controversy for Damir since Jelena rose last year into the top echelon of the women's professional tour.

The WTA has been understood to have wanted to ban Dokic Snr from the tour, just as Jim Pierce, the troublesome father of France's Mary Pierce, was barred in 1993.

Such a move, however, is difficult as long as Jelena wants her father with her.

Dokic Snr last made headlines at Wimbledon two months ago, when he smashed a reporter's mobile phone and was questioned by police after parading the grounds, clearly inebriated, while draped in an England flag.

Last year he was ejected from a tournament in Birmingham for saying officials were Nazis who supported the bombing of his native Yugoslavia. He was later arrested for staging a sit-down protest on a road outside.

In January, he was involved in a scuffle with a Channel 7 camera crew at the Australian Open in Melbourne following an outburst about allegedly rigged draws from his daughter in the wake of her early loss to Hungarian Rita Kuti Kis.

-=+ THE END +=-

<< BACK