Dokic's estranged dad stays away

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Jelena Dokic's estranged father has no intentions of travelling to Melbourne to watch his daughter play in the Australian Open quarter-finals.

Dokic, a former top-five player who had dropped to No. 621 after fighting depression for years, beat Alisa Kleybanova 7-5, 5-7, 8-6 to reach Tuesday's quarter-finals. Her next opponent will be another Russian, third-ranked Dinara Safina.

"I won't travel to Melbourne after what she and the organizers of the tournament said about me," Damir Dokic said via telephone Monday.

Jelena Dokic, a former Wimbledon semifinalist who moved to Australia from Europe in 1994, split with her family after she started training with Croatian coach Borna Bikic in 2003. She renounced her Australian citizenship in 2001 to play for Serbia, but returned in 2006 and has been embraced by Australians.

"I've said always my whole story with him is finished," Jelena Dokic said of her father. "It would have to be an unbelievable miracle for him to change.

"I don't see that happening. I have my tennis and I have my life. I want to do it that way. Knowing him, I just don't see any possibilities."

Australian Open officials said while Damir Dokic is free to purchase tickets to Melbourne Park, he would not be allowed to make contact with his daughter -- unless given permission to do so by her.

In the past, Damir Dokic accused Bikic and his brother Tin Bikic, Jelena's boyfriend, of "drugging" her.

On Monday, Dokic reiterated his accusations against the brothers, calling them "Croatian Ustashas" -- referring to the Croatian Nazi puppet regime that ruled in the state during the Second World War.

"I'm still convinced she is under some kind of pressure or blackmail, and that those two Ustashas had spent her money," said Dokic, who was a member of an ultranationalist Serbian Radical party.

He also denied Jelena's claim the two had not spoken in years.

"That's a lie," said Damir Dokic, who was banned from the U.S. Open in 2000 for abusing staff over the price of a salmon lunch. "We spoke over the phone in October when she wanted to return to Serbia."

Damir Dokic, who once threatened to kidnap his daughter after claiming she had been brainwashed by Australia "with the help of Croatia and the Vatican" and also made headlines for smashing a journalist's phone at Wimbledon, said he has plans to travel to the next Wimbledon and watch her play at other WTA tournaments in Europe.

"I'll simply buy a ticket and go to the stands," he said. "Who can ban me?"

He denied reports he had collapsed after watching Sunday's victory over Kleybanova.

"I never watch her matches," Dokic said. "I don't need that stress.

"I have a high blood pressure."