Now Dokic wants to be British

13 April 2012

Jelena Dokic could become the latest tennis star to make London her home after Damir, her volatile father, fell-out with authorities in the former Yugoslavia over a new multi-million pound tennis complex.

The world No5's plans to have a family mansion and international tennis centre built in Belgrade have been rejected by local authorities and now Damir says he will bring her to England and they will give up Yugoslavian citizenship.

He said: "I am fed up with all this mess and therefore I am going to write Jelena off as a Belgrade citizen. I want her to become a UK citizen. She can't get the right location to build her mansion and the tennis centre she wanted so we have decided to move to England," he told a Belgrade radio station.

"If Jelena can't build a family house in Belgrade, she doesn't need to live in Belgrade. I want Jelena to start paying English taxes. My daughter is a globally-recognised tennis star and she deserves to receive the best location possible to build her home and her tennis centre."

If Dokic is granted British citizenship, women's tennis would suddenly have a top five player. However, the threat of the move is more likely to be part of Damir's tactics to try and push his tennis centre plans through in Belgrade.

Australian Wayne Arthurs already uses London as his base during the season along with Czech David Rikl and France's Fabrice Santoro.

Jelena, whose biggest idol in tennis is Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf, is excited about moving. She was quoted saying she cannot wait to live in London where her favourite movie Notting Hill was filmed, go shopping in the exclusive stores and visit the hottest clubs and discos in England's capital in her spare time. The 19-yearold has won five WTA Tour titles.

Dokic's controversial father, who also acts as her manager, was banned from the Tour last year after incidents at Wimbledon and the US Open.

After losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon this year, her weakest finish following her semi-final appearance in 2000, a London base would increase her support from a British crowd starved of women's success.

Moving countries is nothing new to Jelena who emigrated to Australia from Serbia with her family in 1994, only to leave again after her father's subsequent battles with the Australian press. He encouraged her to swap nationalities and represent Yugoslavia at tournaments.

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