The 28-year-old's gripping three-set loss to 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone marked her sixth opening round exit in eight majors.
The result was particularly painful as Dokic has made such great strides this year, winning a WTA tour event in Malaysia and reaching the final in a lead-up tournament in the Netherlands last week.
"My next goal would be (reaching the) top 30 (in the world), being (ranked) 45 now," she said.
"I will try to get that, work hard for that until the end of the year.
"I would like to be seeded at the Australian Open to avoid first rounds like this.
"Maybe if I played her in the third round or something, then, you know, you have even more matches (and it) would have been different.
"I'm in a position where I can kind of think about that now."
Since her heartwarming run to the quarter-finals at the 2009 Australian Open, Dokic has only won two matches at eight majors.
But Schiavone had no doubt that Dokic could continue her climb up the rankings, the Australian having already elevated her status from 135 to 45 this year.
"Of course she can," she said.
"She can play really well.
"But, you know, tennis is a very special sport, so you have to play every tournament at a high level for years and years.
"So I think she's coming back, but she needs more time.
"For example, today in the third set, she had opportunity and she didn't catch."
Dokic had defeated Schiavone in their previous three encounters and favoured her chances at the All England Club, easily her most successful major venue.
But as the Italian showed in her win over Samantha Stosur at last year's French Open final, she has a knack of grinding out wins against much more gifted opponents.
Schiavone, this month's Roland Garros runners-up, is not renowned for her play on grass but prevailed 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 with the match completed under the roof following afternoon showers.
Despite rolling her ankle in the second set, Dokic looked to be in control of the contest before rain hit with the scores level at 1-1 in the deciding set.
Following a 50-minute delay as the roof was closed and time allowed for the appropriate conditions, sixth seed Schiavone showed all of her cunning by readjusting her game.
She became more positive and used her slice to unsettle Dokic after the Australian had pummelled her with her booming ground strokes in the second set.
"For me it was fantastic," Schiavone said about the break.
- AAP
Tags: sport, tennis, england First posted June 21, 2011 15:05:00
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