Jelena-Dokic.com
JELENA CORNER
October 25, 2004

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'IM, REJOIN 'IM
by Todd Spiker

Okay, everyone... Take 2.

I suppose when you're desperate, you're apt to do almost anything.  Jelena only proved that axiom correct this week with the announcement of the "Damir Detente."  A year ago, Camp Jelena was looking ahead to the future after a runner-up result in Zurich. Now, one year -- and one trip in a time machine -- later, she's back in Belgrade, plotting to reclaim her lost ground in the sport with her father by her side. You have to admit, it's quite an athletic move she's pulled off, this backflip of epic proportions (maybe she should have considered gymnastics over tennis?). Let's just hope she doesn't break her neck in the process.

Consider, less than five months ago, she said this:

>>"I think it is unfair if
>>people say I am missing
>>my father's influence.  I
>>still played at #4 for two
>>years without him and have
>>regularly finished in the
>>Top 15.  It is my aim to
>>prove I can do well without
>>him.  I have to find my way."

And who can forget this doozy just a few weeks later, after Damir said Jelena needed a psychiatrist and a drug test?:

>>"If he's trying to, sorry
>>for my language, (screw)
>>me up I think that's pretty
>>sad.  In an ideal world
>>everybody would like to have
>>a family that's all together,
>>and whether it's a brother or
>>sister, have a normal relation-
>>ship.  I think this is asking
>>for too much in my situation.
>>I don't talk to him and I
>>have nothing to do with him
>>anymore.  I don't know why
>>you say you want to talk to
>>somebody when you are trying
>>to mentally ruin them."

This week, she said this:

>>"I love my family very much
>>and we support each other."

Can you say, "Stepford Jelena?"

Seriously, though, I guess no one can say Jelena isn't a forgiving soul... or so lost for answers that she'll try anything to find enough of them to calm the screaming going on inside her head.  I mean, follow me on this, family IS good and nice and all... but, damn, girl.  Are you SURE about this?

So many of Jelena's past problems came about because Damir caused the controversies that she had to answer for, then because she tried to break free of his total and complete influence to be something more than just a daughter following along at the heels of a father whose chief hobby seemed to be turning as many people as he could against him and, by association, everyone close to him, as well.  It's difficult not to criticize this week's news as an example of Jelena taking the path of least resistence.  Faced with the decision of whether to return to the Dokic nest, or to forever hear the same Damir bleatings from the sidelines that she tried -- but failed -- to quell from a distance, she chose the former option.  She couldn't beat 'im, so she decided to rejoin 'im.

It's clear that taking the "too faraway" approach under Borna Bikic only served to instigate Damir and worsen the entire situation... but is she "too close" now?  It would have been nice to have seen an attempt at some form of compromise before giving in "lock, stock & teardrop," wouldn't it?  I suppose it could still happen, in the form of an additional "coach" to assist in this reclamation project.  But that would entail "compromise" even existing in Damir's Serbian-to-English dictionary, a prospect which likely stretches the bounds of earthly reality.  Not to be pessimistic, but Jelena could end up regretting this move sooner than later.  Now Damir's instant political/tour analysis will be emanating from Jelena's corner (lowercase "c").  How long before Jelena has to start apologizing for his actions again? That's the same scenario that wore her down the last time.  In the balance, bad tennis and total estrangement proved to be the greater of two evils for Jelena, it seems.

Maybe Damir WILL change... but what are the odds of that, bearing in mind that a few months ago he was at his seeming "worst?"  I said in the State of Jelena's Game trilogy that Jelena had a big choice to make.  As it turned out, she made the one that seemed the most unlikely.  I guess that's why so many opinions on her moves on and off court are so often bandied about ad nauseum in these parts.  In the end, Jelena followed the Hantuchova template for recovery by going back from whence she came.  Only, unlike Daniela, Jelena finds herself stepping back into the proverbial lion's den, hoping that he can be somewhat tamed, if nothing else, for the good of the Dokic team.

>>Damir:  "Jelena has shown
>>that she's a great player.
>>She was in crisis.  The
>>time has come to correct
>>that."

There's no mandate that this HAS to be some "deal with the devil."  Sure, there's a Faustian quality to this choice... but Jelena's going to have to live with the consequences, through the good (time with Savo, etc.) and the bad (you can be sure that tennis fans around the world will be placing wagers on the date when Damir first publically embarrasses his daughter, or takes full credit when/if something goes right).  In the past, the Damir/Jelena combination (with the Dokic bunker mentality firmly established) has gone together like peanut butter & jelly, but at other times (with the Dokic paranoia on high alert) it's been more akin to oil & water.  Being under the family's protective wing is one thing, but becoming trapped within her dad's sphere of influence is another.  That's fine at 11, but something increasingly less than that at 21. It's all a bit of a dicey high-wire act we're about to witness all over again.

>>"I'm starting from scratch."

So should the Jelena/Damir dynamic.  For it to work better, both need to grow up a little and build a relationship that isn't quite as one-sided as it's traditionally been... not only for Jelena's tennis thrive again, but also for that elusive peace of mind to finally become evident on her face.  If the on-court half isn't destined to work out as planned and the formerly Top 5 career isn't resurrected, I suspect that one could view this Damir Detente as a way for Jelena to give herself a "fall back" position that would protect her from a future day where she's deprived of success in the sport AND is still estranged from the family.  Hmmm... could she have finally found a "Plan B?"  If only she could have discovered one elsewhere in her life, she might not have needed to walk this potentially rocky road again.

>>Damir:  "What happened, happened."

And it was so bad that the formerly pitched battle between father and daughter has been forced into a peace accord.  If you read between the lines, it's all there in black & white, too.  Damir won.  Jelena lost. And now she's trying to salvage something from the wreckage that resulted when two equally stubborn and hard-headed people carried on an awful familial -- and awfully familiar -- cold war for all the world to see. Let's hope Jelena didn't just write her own one-way ticket to insanity.

This is where Fair One fans around the globe cross their fingers and wish for the best.  The man with the beard is happy... time will tell if the same will ultimately be said of Jelena.

All for now.