Tennis Star's Dad Threatens to Blow Up Embassy
Crazed pop of tennis star almost commits an explosive Grand Slam
Getty Images
Tennis star Jelena Dokic's dad threatened to blow up the Australian Embassy in Serbia.
The furious dad of tennis star Jelena Dokic, who reached the quarterfinals at last year's Australian Open, was arrested Thursday after threatening to blow up the Australian embassy in Belgrade.
Damic Dokic was taken into custody in Serbia after he told a Serbian magazine he would bomb the Embassy if his daughter did not retract claims she'd made to an Australian magazine that he'd abused her as a child, the Times of London reported.
Dokic told magazine Blic that he was armed with an arsenal of weapons at his house and was prepared launch a grenade at the Australian ambassador's car at the Embassy headquarters.
"I expect that after my threat the local police will react, arrest me and confiscate my weapons," he said. "But that would only increase the danger for the ambassador."
Police began searching Dokic's house last night.
Jelena Dokic, the No. 71-ranked player in the country who shot to fame after she defeated then-No.1 Martina Hingis at Wimbledon in 1999, told Australian magazine Sport & Style her dad had abused her during her early years as a tennis star.
"There was no other way I could deal with the situation I was in. I just wanted to get out of my own skin," she said. "I wanted someone else's life."
Damic Dokic is a former boxer who was thrown out of one of his daughter's 1999 games for calling tournament officials "Nazis."
Posted Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 - 7:40 PM EST
Top Stories
