A week ago 18-year-old Jaimee Fourlis and 22-year-old Ellen Perez could not imagine they would both be standing at the presentation for the ACT Clay Court International #2 tennis event.

Canberra, Australia – 1 April: No. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis hits a forehand on match point in the final against Ellen Perez Australia’s no. 7 seed at the ACT Clay Court International #2. (Photo by Rob Keating/Keating Media) #ACTClayIntl #protour
The training partners who are based in Melbourne both had injuries and thought it would only be a dream for them to meet in the final. After the final, both players made a point of thanking Di the tournament physio.

ACT Clay Court International #2 champion Jaimee Fourlis (l) Di Emerson, tournament physio who helped both girls get out on the court and runner-up Ellen Perez.
After a solid week on the clay courts in Canberra, it was Jaimee Fourlis who claimed her second 25k level ITF tournament after defeating Fourlis 6-3, 6-2. Fourlis claimed a title back in 2016 on the hard courts in Perth.
Going into the match Fourlis had said: “It’s always really different playing against someone you know and someone you train with all the time, but of course when you step out onto the court we just leave everything out there.”

Canberra, Australia – 1 April: ACT Clay Court International #2 title winner No. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis, coach Colin and runnerup Ellen Perez Australia’s no. 7 seed at the . (Photo by Rob Keating/Keating Media) #ACTClayIntl #protour
The final was a scrappy affair with Fourlis out playing her higher ranked opponent. Fourlis went into the tournament at 323 and Perez at 288. Both players had outclassed higher ranked players along the way.
Fourlis defeated Frenchwoman Sherazad Reix the no. 4 seed and world ranked 235, in a gruelling quarterfinal match. Then in the semi, she got the better of no. 6 seed and world ranked 262 Zoe Hives in the semifinal.
Perez reached the final after defeating the no. 3 seed and 228 ranked player, Lu Jia-Jing from China in the quarterfinals and then the no. 2 seed from Japan, Eri Hozumi who is ranked at 180. Against Hozumi she came back from 5-2 down in the first set, but there was no such comeback in the final.
Perez who has seen more success in doubles decided to focus on the singles event in the #2 tournament and dropped out of the doubles.

Canberra, Australia – 1 April: Ellen Perez Australia’s no. 7 seed serving in the final against No. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis at the ACT Clay Court International #2. (Photo by Rob Keating/Keating Media) #ACTClayIntl #protour: Ellen Perez Australia’s no. 7 serving for the match at 6-5 against Japan’s no. 2 seed Eri Hozumi in a semifinal match at the ACT Clay Court International #2. (Photo by Rob Keating/Keating Media) #ACTClayIntl #protour
Both players will next travel together to Europe for a three-month stint with the clay and grass court seasons ahead of them.
Transcript of the ACT Clay Court International #2 women’s final presentation follows:
Tennis ACT CEO Kim Kachel: in a Fed Cup capacity, both of you are playing extremely well and hopefully pushing for that Fed Cup selection in the very near future. Good luck with the rest of your travels this year for . We’d also like to thank our major sponsors Lennock, Land Rover and Jaguar.
The players have been treated to the courtesy cars all week and they’re fantastic supporters of Tennis ACT and all of our events also our our proud partners Capital Hotel Group who are our accommodation partners and look after all the players as well. Likewise thank you to our partners and supporters in ACT government for making this world-class facility a reality, we really are lucky to have such an amazing facility and have all the surface types and and amenities on hand such as the gym and and restaurant the amazing facilities for the players, officials and all involved, likewise thank you to Events ACT as a major supporter there’s definitely a lot that goes in behind the scenes of these events and without our support of these sponsors they just wouldn’t be possible.
To our photographers Graham Clews and Nicole Morris, thank you for all the photos this week and over all of our events. For all of our line umpires and officials they’ve done an amazing job all week and the last two weeks, special mention to our chair umpire Matt Kellet let’s give all of our umpires and officials a round of applause. Equally ITF supervisor this week Scott Ray, he always does an amazing job keeping all the players in check and everything sailing in the right direction so well done to Scott.
To our volunteers we’ve got an amazing team of volunteers that drive the players here there and everywhere, also pick up all sorts of different bits and pieces thank you to all our amazing volunteers – a physio Di Emerson for the week and our court maintenance team. Cal we embarrassed him last week and don’t think he’s here this week, he is up the back. Cal does an amazing job looking after these courts. He’s in here at : a.m. in the morning making sure they’re up to the world class standard for for the players and it’s a true credit to his passion the energy that they are such world class courts. Well done Cal.
Also to our tennis ACT team, they do work tirelessly behind the scenes. Nicole, Jake, Brittany, Jeff and Claire, their a small team and capable of hosting such amazing events. Well done to them and the tennis world team in in the pavilion there. Special mention to Lenka. Lenka (Greenhalgh) has been tournament director for the last two weeks and works tirelessly behind the scenes. She’s often first here with Cal and last to leave, and does an amazing job looking after every aspect of these events. Her time effort and energy is second to none and means we have these incredible events. So let’s give everyone a round of applause.
Again we wish both players and their respective teams and coaches all the best for and with that said I’d like to welcome runner-up of ACT clay-court international number two Ellen Perez to accept her trophy.
Ellen Perez: Firstly congratulations to Jaimee, an unreal week, We both didn’t know that was he standing here today, bit of a rough week, so thank you to Di especially getting us here we weren’t really in good shape to begin the tournament so big thanks to you. Thank you to our coach Colin, he coaches both the us, he obviously out coached her today. Thank you to the Clews. we have fun coming back to Canberra, it’s a great tournament, the courts are in great condition so thank you to everyone, oh and my parents, thanks for coming down and spending the weekend, it is not often that I get to see you so that s nice.
Tennis ACT CEO Kim Kachel: And our winner of Clay Court International number two. Jaimee Fourlis.
Jaimee Fourlis: Firstly I would like to congratulate Ellen, for a really good, not one week, but obviously two weeks it’s just just the beginning as I look forward to travelling to Europe with you. Thanks to Di for getting us out on court, both of us, it’s been a pretty interesting week and thanks to our coach Colin it’s been fun, and to all the organisers the sponsors, linesmen, all the umpires Kim as well thanks to my parents that also aren’t here but I hope someone sends a video that shows them. Thanks to the Greys they’re not here at the moment, they went away for Easter, for housing me the two weeks and for everyone making this event possible.
Tennis ACT CEO Kim Kachel: That concludes the finals presentation we wish both players all the best again thank you for coming along and supporting.