Serial-survivor Jelena Dokic shares her journey of living through fatshaming

Jelena Dokic recently responded to body shaming by posting a couple of her own images from different stages of her life before going on to elaborate what they signified.

Her social media post came in response to comments from users stating that they could "barely recognise her" while others wanted to know "what happened" to her with regard to her physical apperance.

In response, Dokic opened about the trauma and abuse she suffered in her younger days before going on to assert that she was now happy with what life had to offer.

In a legthy Instagram post, the former World No. 4 revealed that she had to live in a "domestic violence filled home for 15 years," adding that she was physically and emotionally abused to the point that she had to escape home and "almost committed suicide."

"I lived in a domestic violence filled home for 15 years and I was beaten unconscious. I was abused physically and emotionally and got beaten for the first time when I was 6 years," Dokic wrote.

Explaining the significance of the two images posted, Jelena Dokic was candid enough to admit that the first was that of a traumatized youngster as compared to the second which shows she is now happy.

"The one on the left is a size 4, scared to death, beaten unconscious and that bulge on my shins is from being kicked all night," Dokic wrote. "The one on the right is me at size 16. I will take the size 16 over the size 4 any day, it means I am happy."

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When 16-year-old qualifier Jelena Dokic beat top-seed Martina Hingis at Wimbledon

Jelena Dokic in action during the 1999 Wimbledon Championships

Jelena Dokic, who reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon Championships in 2000 - her best-ever performance in a Grand Slam - burst onto the tennis scene a year earlier.

Dokic, a 16-year-old qualifier, was slated to take on top-seed and former champion Martina Hingis in the opening round of the 1999 women's event at SW19.

Hingis who had appeared in 11 straight Grand Slam semifinals - a streak that began in the 1996 US Open - had lost to Steffi Graf in a closely-contested French Open final earlier that year.

The 1997 Wimbledon champion went down 6-2, 6-0, much to the shock of the tennis fraternity, but Dokic had more surprises in store.

After getting past Katarina Studenikova and Anne Kremer, the teen caused yet another upset by accounting for Mary Pierce in the fourth round.

Alexandra Stevenson of the USA ended the Australian's dream run in the quarter-final stage but not before she had announced her arrival as a force to be reckoned with in women's tennis.

The 40-year-old is now a well-known tennis commentator who interviewed Novak Djokovic during the 2023 Australian Open.

Dokic who was born in Osijek (formerly Yugoslavia) ended her career with six titles while also advancing to the semi-final stage in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.