Family Matters: Good and Bad

The difference worth noting between Serena Williams and Jelena Dokic wasn’t on the court. It’s the difference that makes you feel sorry for Dokic, and not just because she lost to Williams, 7-6 (7), 6-0, in their fourth-round U.S. Open match.

The difference was up in the stands. Sitting in the players’ box were some of Williams’ family members, including sisters Venus, Lyndrea and Isha, and father Richard, until Richard left midway through the first set.

Jelena Dokic’s father, Damir, never had the option of attending. He was banned from the grounds of the National Tennis Center after he threw a fit over the price and small portions of salmon and verbally abused a cafeteria worker. This came after he lost it at Wimbledon and smashed a journalist’s cell phone. The WTA is considering banning him from all tour events.

Damir also happens to be Jelena’s coach, meaning she was very much alone for Monday’s match.

As if Williams didn’t have enough advantages with her big serve and the experience of winning the U.S. Open last year, she had the benefit of a larger rooting section as well.

“It’s definitely good because you get a lot of support,” Williams said. “Especially if you make an unfortunate error that maybe you should have made the shot. It’s good to look up, they’re like, ‘That’s OK, let’s go.’ That’s what’s most important.”

It’s not fair to ask Dokic, 17, to fight these battles on her own.

As she said after her third-round victory over Francesca Schiavone, “You feel like you’re lonely out there. You’ve got to try to get that from yourself, inside. It’s hard to do that sometimes.”

Dokic does possess a remarkable inner strength. The day after her father’s blow-up made the front pages of the tabloids and she watched in tears as security guards dragged her father off the grounds, Jelena completed a very business-like 6-1, 6-4 victory over Miriam Oremans.

“You know, I just look at it [as] you’ve got to be able to deal with situations,” Dokic said. “I did that at Wimbledon, did it here. You’ve got to block things out. You’ve got to go out on the court. You know, you’ve got to be able to just play the game whether something’s happening or not.

“I seem to do that well. I think mentally I’m a strong person.”

That strength comes at a cost. It’s as if all of her energy is devoted to simply maintaining her composure.

The word that constantly comes to mind when watching Dokic is joyless.

She should be having the time of her life, advancing to the latter rounds of Grand Slams, traveling the world. But she always looks as if she is doing chores. She rarely smiles, even after victories.

Williams rejoiced in this victory. She blew kisses to the crowd. She happily autographed giant tennis balls, magazines, programs--she even signed the lens of a television camera that was following her--and a short while later sauntered into the interview room for yet another of her interesting media sessions.

This one touched on everything from “The Color Purple” (“It’s a really depressing book and movie. It’s very sad. Every time I see the movie, I’m in tears.”) to the Williams family dynamics.

“We were always encouraged to make our own decisions,” Serena said. “Well, whatever Venus did, I did. [But] I was finally able to grow up. That’s how little sisters are.

“We were encouraged to make our own decisions, and we would learn from them.”

It seems as though Dokic’s decisions have been made for her. She must persevere, she must be tough, because her father is going to make things difficult for her.

For all of Richard Williams’ quirks, including the signs with hand-written messages he sometimes displays during his daughters’ matchups, he’s generally harmless.

In fact, his greatest offense came when he was nowhere near Flushing Meadow. When Venus was on her way to the 1997 final, Richard was back home in Florida. He stirred up controversy in a telephone interview when he called Irina Spirlea a “big white turkey” after Spirlea’s infamous bump of Venus during a changeover.

Unlike Damir Dokic, Richard Williams has shown the ability to learn from his mistakes and modify his behavior. Now he goes out of his way to praise the other members of the WTA Tour--including Lisa Raymond, who has bitterly contested the selection of Serena to the Olympic tennis team over her.

Williams--who sometimes gets too nervous to watch his daughters--left early in the first set. That meant he missed the exciting tiebreaker, in which Serena blew a 4-1 lead, then fought off a set point before winning the last three points. He didn’t miss too much in the second set, when a deflated Dokic couldn’t win a single game.

Dokic had the sharper ground strokes in the first set, but Williams got by serving 10 of her 14 aces.

Dokic is ranked No. 43 in the world, but her game is solid enough to keep her around to the second week of Grand Slams regularly, and she isn’t playing too far below the level of the Top 10 players.

It would be a shame if she had to do it all on her own now. The Dokic family is a very tight camp, and there aren’t a number of outsiders allowed in, not many places to turn.

Time is running out on Dokic’s adolescence--that is, if there’s anything left of it after all she’s been through.

It’s too late to really make changes or suggestions, other than perhaps next time Damir should order the chicken.

*

SAMPRAS KEEPS GOING

Pete Sampras ended the surprising run of qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea.

Page 10

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com