Melbourne - Jelena Dokic has again arrived in Australia determined to rescue her tennis, but this time bearing a conciliatory message to her adopted country.

The Serbia-born player, whose career has been a roller-coaster of success and dismal disappointment, has rolled back her harsh comments of a year ago, when the
25-year-old hammered Australian Open officials for failing to award her a wild card.

"I've apologised to (tournament director Craig Tiley) and Tennis Australia," Dokic said after arriving from Monte Carlo to compete in next week's playoff for a wild card entry into the Grand Slam field.

"I made some remarks in January that were out of line. I should not have said that."

Dokic, a teenaged Wimbledon semi-finalist once ranked fourth, has lifted her ranking back to 179 after years on the fringes of the game. She says she still does not communicate with her father, considered to be one of the main causes of her fall from the sport's elite.

Dokic has gone back and forth with her adopted home of Australia, declining to play for her new nation in 2001 but then switching back two years ago.

Dokic's chance to compete in the Open starting January 19 will come if she can win the wild card playoff from next Monday at Melbourne Park. She played the Open in
2006, losing in the first round due to lack of form, an ankle injury and a ranking of 621.

"I'm in the best shape I've probably been in the last four years, I've made a couple of steps forward and I need to continue for the next six months," she told local media.

"I think I'm on the way, I didn't play a full schedule this year and I still got my ranking up enough to be in the qualies of tournaments.' (dpa)