Jessica Rowe tells Jelena Dokic she ‘hates’ her father in heartbreaking interview, after the tennis star suffered years of abuse at the hands of her violent father.

Jessica Rowe told tennis star Jelena Dokic that reading her memoir made her hate the athlete’s father, Damir, in a candid interview this week.

Jelena, 41, has long been open about the suffering she endured at the hands of her father, writing in her book Unbreakable that he inflicted regular beatings on her with a belt or a hard boot, and once knocked her unconscious.

Interviewing Jelena on The Jess Rowe Big Talk Show, Jess, 53, told the sportscaster that it was difficult to read the narrative of those events without resenting the man who abused her for years.

“Reading your story, I hate your father,” Jess told Jelena, before expressing surprise that the former athlete doesn’t feel the same hatred toward him.

‘No. I don’t want to come from that place. I do not hate anyone. Hate is a very strong word, but I can understand you and people using it,” Jelena told the podcast host.

‘For some reason the universe gave me that as my childhood and my life and I have to accept the circumstances… I don’t have to hate it, but I don’t forgive it.’

Jelena’s father, Damir, was her coach throughout her career and Jelena has previously said that she would accept nothing less than perfection.

‘Even if I won, I would sometimes be beaten and abused. I had very difficult times where I was hit, kicked and punched until I was unconscious,” she said.

“They silenced me my entire life. From the first day I started playing tennis, the number one rule was “Never say anything to anyone, or there will be huge, huge consequences,” she said of his dominant personality.

Despite suffering years of abuse, Jelena revealed earlier this year why she once tried to reconcile with her aggressive father when they last made contact a decade ago.

‘The last time I had contact with him was about 10 years ago. And yes, I even tried to reconcile with him once or twice,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I think no matter what happens, you have hope that you can save a relationship as far as family is concerned.”

Last June, Jelena shed light on the heartbreaking truth behind a photo taken during her teenage years at the US Open.

In a deeply personal Instagram post, she revealed the harrowing experiences she endured, including depression, social media abuse, body shaming and alleged violence inflicted by her father Damir throughout her career.

Sharing a photo of herself distraught at a press conference, Jelena explained the torment she faced when she was 17, after allegedly being physically assaulted by her father just weeks earlier.

‘Young man, 17 years old, in a media storm, beaten unconscious [sic] “For my father just a few weeks before, trying so hard not to break down at the press conference,” she wrote.

“Dealing with my father’s public and drunken outbursts while the world judges me and the media makes a lot of headlines.”