WORLD EXCLUSIVE

Dokic warms up at sunny resort

14 June 2009 || By Monticelli

elena dokicJelena Dokic may be missing from the main draw at Eastbourne's very own mini-Wimbledon, but the Australia is getting her eye before Wimbledon by staying on the sunny south coast of England.

The troubled tennis ace was practising in Monday morning at Devonshire Park, but quit once the crowds poured through the gates. And in the afternoon Dokic lent fast fading 21-year-old Serbian starlet Ana Ivanovic some much-needed support on Centre Court.

But the ex-world no1 and former French Open champion was thrashed in the opening set only to bounce back and be on the brink of beating Russian Nadia Petrova. It was Eastbourne 2008 runner-up Petrova who played a blinder in the closing stages to seal a three set success.

Ivanovic's defeat added to the recent woes for Dokic, who has not played on the WTA Tour since retiring with a back injury from the 2009 French Open but frequently used the practice courts at Devonshire Park.

The 26-year-old originally began practising on Devonshire Park's grass courts on Tuesday 9th June but, according to sources close to eastbournetennis.com, visited Serbia on Wednesday and Thursday because of her's father trial and subsequent prison sentence for 15 months.

She was next seen practising with Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki as from 11am on Friday June 12th at Devonshire Park (pictured), and had been expected to play in the prestigious grass court event.

But the Aussie ace, who has trained at Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in the USA this year, retired in the second round of the 2009 French Open following a mishap and was only cleared of permanent lower back damage following an MRI scan.
              
And she was spotted practising exclusively by eastbournetennis.com staff at Eastbourne's Devonshire Park on 9th June, then driven away in a silver car with two men - assumed to be her coach and trainer as they were on court with her. This was despite having pulled out of Birmingham's AEGON Classic with a back injury that she incurred at Roland Garros against Elena Dementieva.

Lawrence Frankopan, Dokic's agent, claimed in early June that Dokic was going to play at Eastbourne in an attempt to better her 2000 run to the Wimbledon semi-finals. Although, given her lowly world ranking and a strong set of players in the ladies draw, Dokic would have had to start in the qualifying rounds on June 13th.