Player-turned-commentator Jelena Dokic on Monday lashed out at the “disgusting” body-shaming she suffered online while working at the Australian Open. The Australian, who rose to a career world ranking of four in 2002, has conducted on-air interviews at Melbourne Park after players won matches. But the 39-year-old, who has been open about her experiences with domestic violence and mental health in the past, said she had repeatedly come in for online abuse because of her weight.
“The ‘body shaming’ and ‘fat shaming’ of the past 24 hours has been insane,” she wrote on Instagram.
She said it came from all over the world, but especially from Serbia. She was born in Croatia and has a Serbian father.
“And yes, a lot of them are women too. So much for ‘women supporting women,'” she added.
Dokic, who revealed last year that she nearly committed suicide, said the abuse was “evil and disgusting”.
“The most common comment is ‘what happened to her, she’s so big’?” she wrote.
“I’ll tell you what happened, I find a way and survive and fight. And it really doesn’t matter what I do and what happened because size shouldn’t matter.
“What matters is your online abuse, bullying and fat shaming. That’s what matters because those of you who do it are just bad, bad, mean and ignorant people.”
Dokic rose to prominence at Wimbledon in 1999 when she stunned world number one Martina Hingis in the first round.
She won six WTA singles titles during her career and reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2000, but struggled for years to escape the influence of her fickle father Damir.
They endured a well-documented split and she tumbled down the rankings.
The family split followed a series of bizarre episodes, including Damir being banned from the All England Club at Wimbledon and at one point claiming his daughter had been kidnapped.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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