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Dokic misses out on Wimbledon return
Jelena Dokic's bid to qualify for Wimbledon ended at the first hurdle when she was beaten by former semi-finalist Alexandra Stevenson in the first round of qualifying.
Jelena Dokic's bid to qualify for Wimbledon ended at the first hurdle when she was beaten by former semi-finalist Alexandra Stevenson in the first round of qualifying.
Stevenson, 25 and on the comeback trail after a serious shoulder injury, won the match, which finished late on Tuesday, 4-6, 7-6 (6/4), 6-2, to dent Dokic's chances of resurrecting her own flagging career.
The American, who beat Dokic in the 1999 Wimbledon quarter-finals, was delighted to have got through a tough 2h 12min battle without any reaction from her shoulder.
"I was out for two years with my shoulder problem," she said. "I had surgery for it and now it is perfectly repaired."
Dokic, 23, is attempting to rebuild a career that once took her to the heights of number four in the world and the semi-finals of Wimbledon a year after she lost to Stevenson at the All England club.
She resumed playing for Australia last year, four years after she quit the country for her native Serbia, and cut off ties to her controversial father Damir Dokic.
But those moves have yet to pay off in terms of an upturn in her form and she is currently ranked 681st in the world.
