26th June 2002

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23rd June 2002

Jelena Online has been passed documents the contents of which are simply staggering. One of them contains the notes of various telephone conversations between Jelena Dokic's fromer attorney Mr John S Vento, and a Mr Ivan Brixi who was the former manager of Jelena Dokic when she was under contract to Octagon Marketing. The memorandum also contains notes of a conversation between Mr Vento and Ms. Tandy O'Donoghue who is the Chief Legal Officer of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) as well as notes of various conversations with Jelena Dokic.

As well as being a representative of Octagon Marketing, Mr Ivan Brixi is currently a senior Director of the WTA. He is listed on the official website of the WTA as a Tournament Class Director.

As previous mentioned on Jelena Online, Jelena Dokic filed a lawsuit against Octagon at the start of this year when her contract with Octagon expired. This court case is still in progress and looks like dragging on for some time.

Last year on the 6th September a telephone call was placed to Mr Brixi by Mr Vento conveying an offer from Jelena to settle the dispute regarding her management contract that she had with Octagon. Brixi was upset at this offer saying it was "insulting" and that although he would consult with his partners there was no likelihood of it being accepted.

However there was a subsequent telephone call between Ms O'Donoghue and Jelena, regarding a letter sent by Brixi to Ms. O'Donoghue stating that the WTA were to have no direct contact with Jelena. Instead all communications had to go through himself or Octagon. This resulted in Jelena telephoning Mr Vento only minutes after Mr Vento had conveyed the offer to Brixi. Jelena was furious about Brixi's letter and she instructed Mr Vento to immediately contact Brixi and withdraw the offer.

Mr Vento carried out this instruction and informed Brixi that the offer was withdrawn to which Brixi got upset and very angry. Brixi then informed Mr Vento that Octagon managed and owned 10 tournaments on the WTA Tour and that "cohabitation was in Jelena's best interests".

Brixi went on to imply that Octagon would file a lawsuit and delibrately tie up in court, all monies that were owed to Jelena and eventually these monies would be eaten up in legal fees and Jelena would not receive a cent of it.

Brixi then stated that he would make sure that his partners in Octagon would do everything in their power to make life 'unpleasant' for Jelena starting with the upcoming tournament in Brazil (Brasil Open) which was an Octagon tournament. Brixi also threatened that similar unpleasantness would occur at any future Octagon tournament that Jelena was participating in. The attorney did not take this as a threat of physical harm but understood it to mean that Brixi and Octagon would try to somehow psychologically affect Jelena's performance during these tournaments.

Brixi then offered the attorney an example of where he had already been successful in psychologically affecting Jelena's play in such a negative way. The example that Brixi offered was the then recent 2001 US Open 4th round tie between Jelena and Martina Hingis. At the time Brixi was the manager for both players.

At the start of that match Jelena was playing fantastic tennis and quickly established a 3-0 lead. It was at this time that Brixi then decided he was going to try and effect the outcome of the match. He did this by taking a seat in Hingis's box. As soon as Jelena spotted Brixi supporting Hingis, her game quickly fell apart.

She was quite rightly distressed that her and Hingis's so called impartial manager was quite clearly supporting her opponent. Apart from this being immoral, it is also a breach of WTA's Code of Conduct. Prior to this Jelena was hitting the lines and serving well, the next thing she was missing her shots by miles.

After almost every point Jelena was walking back to the baseline and glancing up into the stands with a "what the **** is he doing up there?" look on her face, so much so that this was even remarked upon by the television commentators. Jelena went on to lose the first set 6-4. Jelena only won 9 points in the whole of the second set and lost it and the match 6-4, 6-0.

Brixi admitted to the attorney that he could see Jelena's expression and that he knew that his presence had affected her play and he promised more of the same if Jelena did not come up with an agreeable settlement.

The attorny was left in no doubt to the nature of these threats from Brixi, that Octagon's management would try to affect the outcome of Jelena's future matches.

Later that day Mr Vento telephoned the Dokic residence in Tampa and informed Jelena of the conversation he had with Brixi and the threats that he had made. Jelena was deeply distressed at this because she at first took the nature of these threats to be of a violent physical nature and Mr Vento had to reassure her otherwise. Jelena then instructed Mr Vento to inform Ms. O'Donoghue of the threats that Brixi had made. To say the least, Ms O'Donoghue was surprised and upset over Brixi's threats and concurred that they were not of a physical nature but said something to the effect of " Brixi can't do that. Just because they (Octagon) manage the tournaments doesn't give them the right to interfere with the players. It would be very bad for them if they did that. "

Ms. O'Donoghue then concurred with Mr Vento that it would be best if all the parties settled the dispute over the management contract quietly.

erm

No chance.

What the **** are the WTA going to do in regards to Brixi ?

A letter was sent by Jelena Dokic's attorney on the 4th May 2002 to the WTA. The letter was in regards to initiating a complaint in regards to Brixi being in breach of the WTA's Code of Conduct section 4.4.5. which is headed DISHONORABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT OF TOURNAMENT OWNERS AND DIRECTORS.

Section 4.4.5. Paragraph A includes the following statement:

"The favourable public reputation of the Sanex WTA Tour, it's Tournaments and players is a valuable asset and creates tangible benefits for all Sanex WTA Tour members. Accordingly, it is an obligation for Tour sanctioned Sanex WTA Tour Tournaments, Owners and Directors to refrain from engaging in conduct contrary to the integrity of the game of tennis."

Ms. Tandy O'Donoghue (WTA Chief Legal Officer) replied to the complaint and concluded that they was no basis for pursuing it. In defence of this decision Ms. O'Dononghue made the point that no assertion of psychological impact on Jelena's performance subsequent to the 2001 US Open could be demonstrated.

Ms O'Donoghue stated that this was especially so in the 3 Octagon owned tournaments where Jelena had very good results including 2 final appearances (Brasil and Zurich) and a title victory (Kremlin Cup). It's a fair point but nonetheless it doesn't negate the fact that Jelena entered and competed in those tournaments with the knowlegde that these threats had been made against her.

It is to Jelena's credit and strong will of mind that she was able to block out these distractions when she stepped onto the court. This wasn't the first time that Jelena has demonstrated her mental toughness. She showed it during last year's Wimbledon when she had to play against the backdrop of one of the largest negative reporting campaigns by the UK press that was ever conducted against a player and their family (more of that later).

The difference with the Hingis match was Jelena did not have time to prepare for the distraction. It happened whilst she was playing !

She had no prior knowledge that Brixi was going to try and pysche her out. If she had known before hand it's possible Jelena might have been able to cope with it better but at the time the shock of seeing her manager sitting in her opponent's box was just too much for her and she simply fell apart.

Ms. Donoghue's letter mainly concentrates on the point that Jelena's subsequent performances appeared not to be affected. In regard to Brixi actually admitting the occasion when he was successful in affecting her performance, Ms O'Donoghue conveniently makes no direct reference to (and let's not forget we're talking about a Grand Slam tie and not some exhibition match in China).

Instead Ms. O'Donoghue refers to "third and fourth hand accounts of vaguely described comments" even though she herself was extremely angry and upset when Mr Vento informed her of these threats first hand. According to Mr Vento, Ms. O'Donoghue wasn't in the least bit 'vague' as to the nature of Brixi's 'comments'.

At no point in her letter did Ms. O'Donoghue deny that Brixi had made these threats or the admission that he influenced the outcome of a Grand Slam tie.

At the end of the day everything comes down to the integrity of Mr John S Vento of respected law firm Trenam Kemker.

We have scanned Mr Vento's and Ms O'Donoghue's letters and you can decide for yourself as to the integrity of Mr John S Vento of Trenam Kemker.

Octagon ? Who the **** are they ? And just how big is their influence within the WTA ?

Octagon Marketing and Athlete Representation is one of the largest sports athlete management firms in the world. They employ over 1,500 sports marketing professionals in at least 50 offices througout the world in every major continent.

They are part of the Interpublic Group of Companies which is the World's largest advertising and marketing group.

Tennis stars that they represent include Anna Kournikova, Martina Hingis, Leyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten, Todd Martin and Mary Pierce . In other sports their clients include Aaron Brooks, John Elway (from NFL) , Tom Kite, Davis Love III (Golf), Jason Robertson , Ben Clarke (Rugby), boxer Audley Harrision and cricketeer Darren Gough as well as countless other stars from the world of sports.

As well as representing athletes, Octagon also own and/or manage many tournaments and events throughout the World including the Stella Artois tennis championships in London (mens tennis), the Natwest Trophy (cricket) and the Coca Cola Cup (football ) (that's soccer to Americans) although this is now called the Worthington Cup and Jelena Online is unsure if Octagon still manage that event since it's name changed.

According to Ivan Brixi, Octagon also own and manage 10 tournaments on the WTA Tour. Jelena Online has been able to determine all 10 events..

They are: The Kremlin Cup, The Swisscom Challenge, Brasil Open, Proximus Diamond Games, Qatar Finaelf Open, Ordina Open, Abierto Mexicano Pegaso Open, The Prokom Open, the SEAT Open and the largest event of all, the season-ending WTA Tour Championships

All together, Octagon’s WTA events boast purses of something in the region of $7,698,000 with $3,000,000 of that money invested in the Tour Ending Championships. Earlier in the year, the Championships were announcing a move from it’s venue last year (Munich) to it’s current venue (The Staples Centre in Los Angeles). Octagon wanted to pursue this move due to a poor turnover last year in Munich and thus the WTA allowed the move. Octagon’s influence on the WTA and tennis in general is sizeable as they control parts of the market and manage some of the worlds biggest stars.

In addition they are involved in the production and distribution of sports television programmes and the management of rights ownership and the licensing and merchandising of those rights and just about anything else that they either own or represent.

In 1997 at the age of just 14, Jelena Dokic was the second youngest athlete to have signed for Octagon.

>>> Other articles involving Brixi and Jelena <<<

Questions.

There are several questions that remain unanswered.

1) Was Brixi acting alone when making these threats and acting against Jelena in such a negative manner? or was he acting with Octagon's full knowledge and co-operation?

2) What action ? , if any, are the WTA now going to take against their Tournament Class director and indeed with Octagon who we have shown have an enormous influence within the WTA and with Professional tennis in general.

3) Should a large commercial corporation like Octagon be allowed to have such a big influence in the WTA at board level ?

A Statement by Jelena Online.

Due to a legal action filed by Octagon against Damir Dokic, Mr Dokic is prohibited from making any comment whatsoever.

We at Jelena Online will also not comment on any of the legal actions that are in progress. We will let the courts decide.

But we are disappointed at the WTA's unwillingness to take any action against their Tournament Class Director in regard to a breach of their Code of Conduct. Mr Brixi's admission of his actions at the 2001 US Open and his subsequent threats regardless of whether those threats were carried out or not constitutes, in our view, a serious breach of that Code of Conduct.

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