wow! nice to hear that

maybe myskina should take her as a leading rolemodel lol

i liked dokic as well, but did you know that even monica seles wants to come back? she wants to firstly play in miami and further on the slams as far as i remember...hell yeah, the craziest things happen these days...

i don't know, should be about 34 years old by now...but i'm not sure

Dokic hopes for wild card

Former world number four Jelena Dokic will need to rely on an organiser's invitation for next month's Australian Open after pulling out of the wildcard qualifying tournament with a thigh injury.


Dokic had been trailing 16-year-old Olivia Rogowska 6-3 3-1 in the quarter-final of the tournament when she called for the trainer and then withdrew from the match.

"A decision on the discretionary wildcards for Australian Open will be made later in the summer based on performance and, of course, with our youth policy in mind," Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said.

A former Wimbledon semi-finalist, Dokic, 24, has hardly played since she won the Australian Open wildcard qualifying tournament in late 2005 but was then knocked out in the grand slam's first round by France's Virginie Razzano.

Jelena Dokic will contest her first major tennis tournament for two years tomorrow when she plays in the first round of the Hobart International.

Dokic was given a wildcard into the qualifiers and today defeated world No.89 Yaroslava Shvedova 6-2 6-3 to secure a place in the main draw where she will meet Germany's Martina Muller.

Dokic surprised herself with how well she played on her comeback mission.

"It was not my plan to get this far," she said.

"I think I have played well in all my matches and stepped it up when I needed to."

Despite the windy conditions, Dokic was again dominant if not a little shaky towards the end.

"When I though I might win I got a little nervous," she admitted.

Fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua advanced to the second round of tournament No.8 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain was forced to retire due to a back injury.

She called for the trainer after the ninth game with Dellacqua ahead 5-4 and had extensive work done on her lower back.

She then returned to the court but struggled to serve before calling it a day.

Dellacqua had made a brilliant start to the match, taking the the first two games before losing her own serve.

A series of breaks ensued with Dellacqua holding in the ninth game and poised to receive for the set before injury struck.

"It is a shame she couldn't complete the match," Dellacqua said of her opponent.

"For me what I need at the moment is to play matches."

Dellacqua said she was pleased with her returns, having identified them as a key factor before the match.

Other main draw winners today were Elena Vesnina of Russia and Eleni Daniilidou from Greece.

Vesnina cruised through the first set against Japan's Akiko Morigami 6-4 before the Japanese world No.50 stepped up the pace in the second set.

Morigami served for the second set only to be broken with Vesnina going on to win 6-4 7-5.

Daniilidou, the world No.43 had too much firepower for Pauline Parmentier of France The Greek player also bemoaned the wind factor but was thrilled to advance to the second round 6-3 6-4.