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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Australia’s Ellen Perez has come from behind to reach the final of the ACT Clay Court International #2 where she will face 18-year-old fellow Australian, Jaimee Fourlis who had earlier defeated Zoe Hives in the first semifinal.

Perez ranked at 288 played the no. 2 seed and 180th ranked player from Japan Eri Hozumi and after holding serve in the first game of the match dropped the next two service games to fall behind 4-1.

Hozumi was taking advantage of errors from Perez and was looking to advance to the final. In the previous round, she easily accounted for Great Britain’s Katy Dunne 6-1, 6-0, but Perez had some fight left in her.

Perez steadied the ship with a break in the sixth game to edge back into the match at 2-4, only to see her serve broken in the very next game after hitting some balls out and losing a point to a Hozumi lob which set up two break points.

What was first called as an ace looked to have saved one break point before Hozumi asked the umpire to check the ball mark. This saw the serve called a fault. From the second serve return, Perez sent the ball into the net, followed by her racquet bouncing across the court in frustration.

Hozumi looked to be in control serving for the first set at 5-2. This was the turning point in the match. Perez got off to a bad start shanking the first return well wide. Hozumi instead of stepping on the gas invited Perez back into the game after a weak shot into the net. Still, Perez struggled with another big shank.

With Hozumi serving at 30-15 she threw in a double-fault for 30-30 but a lucky net cord saw Perez struggle to reach the short ball and she hit into the net. With Hozumi up 40-30 and needing one point to close out the set, she hit an easy shot long. Then another out ball brought up a break point for Perez, but a shot into the net brought up another set point.

Perez ripped a second serve return that Hozumi could not handle, however, another long shot by Perez brought up yet another set point.

The next point was interesting. A bad bounce saw Hozumi take an air swing which she then asked the umpire to look at the ball mark, the shot was called in after much debate. Perez then ripped a forehand winner to bring up a break point which she converted after forcing Hozumi into an error with a wide shot.

Perez held serve to love in a game punctuated by an ace. Hozumi now had her lead cut to 5-4.  The players traded errors all the way to 30-40 before Perez played a drop shot that Hozumi returned as a drop shot. Perez pushed a shot down the line and Hozumi at full stretch hit the volley into the net.

From 4-1 down, Perez had worked her way back to 5-5.

With the errors continuing to flow the Hozumi’s racquet, and with more first serves going in from Perez, the Australian took the lead at 6-5.

With Hozumi serving the first point was lost by Perez when she hit into the net, 15-0, then a good deep shot by Hozumi forced a long shot from Perez. A careless miss my Hozumi made the score 30-15. Perez again netted for 40-15, before a cross-court winner took the score to 40-30. The forehand was working for Perez as she forced an error for deuce. Hozumi lifted the pace on her shot to get back-to-back errors to send the set into a tie-break.

A good deep shot on the first point of the tie-breaker forced an error from Hozumi for a 1-0 lead to Perez. A backhand service winner gave Perez an early mini-break to lead 2-0. Two missed shots from Perez saw Hozumi get back to 2-2, before Hozumi hit wide and then long for Perez to edge out to 4-2. An error from Perez made it 4-3, then Hozumi netted twice for 6-3 to Perez.

Finally, it was another error from Hozumi when she reached into court to hit a shot long. Perez now had the advantage 7-6(3).

In the second set, the players held serve until at 2-2 Perez edged out to 15-40 before converting the break to lead 3-2. With Perez serving well she held serve to lead 4-2.

Hozumi was looking tired and the errors still flowed and Perez had break points to win the match, but errors flowed and the opportunity came and went with another shanked shot to see the set at 5-4. Perez now had the chance to serve for the match.

A Hozumi winner followed by a double-fault saw the no. 2 seed go out to 0-30 before two errors levelled the game at 30-30. With the win again within reach, Perez double-faulted then hit long to hand the game to Hozumi. It was now 5-5.

Perez got another break and with another chance to serve out the match she did not give Hozumi a sniff, serving to love, to claim a finals berth against the no. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis who is ranked at 323.

The pair met in September 2017 at the Penrith 25k event where Fourlis claimed a win after Perez retired at 6-1, 5-4.

Fourlis has won a 25k event back in 2016 in Perth on hard courts.

In an all-Australian semifinal at the ACT Clay Court International, 18-year-old Jaimee Fourlis (8) has gotten the better of Zoe Hives (6) to reach the final. Fourlis won the match 6-2, 7-5.

In the first set, Hives was frustrated by what she said was her poor play and by Fourlis frequently hitting close to the lines. Fourlis had jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the match and maintained her composure to close out the set.

The match was played in ideal conditions on the Canberra clay. Lights winds and sunshine greeted the players as they took to the court.

In the second set, Hives was finding her range, but still showed signs of frustration, and also appeared to be troubled by her right knee’s taping which was coming loose.

The players exchanged breaks late in the second set with Fourlis taking two attempts to serve out the match. She failed at 5-4 and Hives levelled up at 5-5, only to be broken again. On the second occasion, Fourlis fell behind 0-40 after missing a shot down the line.

With the prospect of failing to serve out the match for the second time, Fourlis worked her way back into the game. At 15-40 down Fourlis was quick to the net to put away a volley, then Hives hit wide for deuce. Another error saw Hives hit into the net to bring up match point.

Fourlis held her nerve to take the set 7-5 and moves into the final where she will play the winner of the second semifinal between the no. 2 seed from Japan Eri Hozumi and the no. 7 seed from Australia, Ellen Perez.

Hives is ranked at 262 and Fourlis is 323 on the WTA world rankings.

 

In the first ACT International clay court tournament held from 19 March, we saw players from Japan, Great Britain, Austria, France, Romania and Slovenia battle it out against the Australians. On that occasion, it was Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic who took the title against Destanee Aiava. Jakupovic also took out the doubles title, teaming up with Australia’s Priscilla Hon.

With Jakupovic and Hon not backing up for the #2 tournament, the doubles title was up for grabs.

When it came to the doubles final we found a combination that included an Austrian and Japanese player against an Australian and a Romanian. The players were Australia’s Kaylah Mcphee with Romania’s Irina Fetecau against Pia Konig from Austria and Michika Ozeki from Japan. Fetecau and Mcphee only teamed up at the last moment, and they were taking on the no. 4 seeds.

What makes a tennis tournament in Canberra unique is that there are often members of the diplomatic community coming to the tennis to support their players. At the last men’s tournament, the German Ambassador watched Florian Mayer and before that the Israeli Ambassador watched Dudi Sela claim a victory in Canberra.

With Fetecau, we saw the Romanian Ambassador to Australia Her Excellency Mrs Nineta Bărbulescu and a vocal Romanian support group cheer on their countrywoman. That support helped. Fetecau and Mcphee claimed their first 25k level title, winning the ACT Clay Court International #2 6-1, 4-6, (10-5).

After the match, the Ambassador made a special point to not only congratulate Fetecau, but she also said thank you to Mcphee and asked where is she from. On finding out that Mcphee is from Brisbane, the Ambassador said she would arrange something with the Romanian community in Brisbane. The players also shared their victory with the Romanian fans and signed tennis balls and posed for photos with the group.

But not only that, they took the time to have the Romanian flag flying in the background of the photos. And not to leave Kaylah Mcphee out of the celebrations, they all lined up with an Australian flag in the background.

In Fetecau’s victory speech, she mentioned that there would be some tears as she left Canberra as she had enjoyed the past two weeks.

 

Visit the Keating Media photos site to see more photos from the ACT Clay Court International #2 tennis, which were taken on 30 March 2018

Great Britain’s Gabriella Taylor, the no. 1 seed for the ACT Clay Court International tennis event being held at the Canberra Tennis Centre was forced to retire from her quarterfinal match at 5-5 in the first set with a leg injury.

Taylor was playing the no. 6 seed from Australia, Zoe Hives. Early in the match Hives was on top, but the Brit who had reached the semifinals in the #1 tournament last week in Canberra fought back before the injury was too much to continue.

“I’m really happy to get through,” Hives said. “I was actually really enjoying the match until she hurt herself so it’s a bit of shame but it was a good match still.”

The highest seed left in the tournament, no. 2 Eri Hozumi easily accounted for Great Britain’s Katy Dunne, the no. 5 seed. Hozumi dominated the rallies and won the match 6-1, 6-0. Dunne showed glimpses of what is possible with some big shots, but she was not able to string together winners to fight her way back into the match.

Ellen Perez had a good win against the no. 3 seed Lu Jia-Jing from China. In both sets, Perez overcame the disappointment of not serving out the sets to prevail in tie-breaks.

Below is a video showing the first set tie-break from the Ellen Perez v Lu Jia-Jing match.

She’s a high-level player so it’s nice to get another win against someone ranked higher than myself,” Perez, the No.7 seed, said. “I had opportunities to close out both sets when I was serving for it but when I went to the tiebreaks I was pretty clear what I was doing and managed to get it done.”

Australia’s Jaimee Fourlis battled it out with the fourth-seeded Frenchwoman Sherazad Reix. 18-year-old Fourlis was well on top in the first set winning 6-1, only to see Reix storm back to take the second with the same scoreline.

Both players fought hard in the third set with Fourlis advancing 6-1, 1-6, 7-5.

 

 

Canberra’s Alison Bai, after having made an early exit in the first clay court tournament held last week, has advanced to the second round of the ACT Claycourt International #2, following a first round win over fellow Australian Alexandra Bozovic. Bai won 6-3, 6-4.

Last week we saw the 60,000k event held at the Canberra Tennis Centre in Lyneham. The winner was Slovakia’s Dalilia Jakupovic who defeated Australia’s Destanee Aiava. This week is a chance for another player to step up and take the title as both finalists from last week are not taking part.

In other matches, Great Britain’s Katy Dunne came back from 2-6, 0-2 to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Olivia Tjandramulia. Dunne is the no. 5 seed and appeared to be heading for back-to-back round one losses in Canberra.

Austria’s Pia Konig defeated Australia’s Angelique Svinos 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3.

The full day’s singles results are below.

Pia Konig (AUT) 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 Angelique Svinos (AUS)
Alison Bai (AUS) 6-3 6-4 Alexandra Bozovic (AUS)
Zoe Hives (AUS) [6] 7-5 6-1 Ivana Popovic (AUS)
Sherazad Reix (FRA) [4] 6-0 6-0 Anastasia Berezov (AUS)
Irina Fetecau (ROU) 6-4 6-1 Annerly Poulos (AUS)
Genevieve Lorbergs (AUS) 7-5 6-1 Jessica Moore (AUS)
Jelena Stojanovic (AUS) 6-2 6-3 Masa Jovanovic (AUS)
Katy Dunne (GBR) [5] 2-6 6-3 6-3 Olivia Tjandramulia (AUS)
Michika Ozeki (JPN) 6-4 6-1 Ramona Mataruga (AUS)
Kimberly Birrell (AUS) 7-6(4) 4-6 6-1 Makoto Ninomiya (JPN)

Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic has defeated Destanee Aiava in straight sets in the ACT Claycourt International final, to cap off a perfect week in the nation’s capital. Jakupovic won 6-4, 6-4 to claim both the doubles and singles titles, the singles title was won without dropping a set.

The conditions in Canberra were unpleasant for watching and playing. Strong winds were combined with intermittent showers which twice sent the players to the changerooms.

Jakupovic is ranked at 171, with Aiava at 219. The Slovenian has won four ITF titles, three at the $25,000 level and one $10,000 event. The ACT Clay Court International Title is a US $60,000 level event and represents the biggest win for the 27-year-old.

Jakupovic earns 80 rankings points for the title win, Aiava earns 48 as runner-up.

Aiava was playing her third final in Canberra and played in the Clay Court final in 2016 when the event was last held in Canberra as a women’s event. Marc Polmans had won the men’s title in 2017.

It was Jakupovic who took an early lead getting a break in the opening games. A heavy rain shower delayed play with Aiava serving at 2-4 down. After coming back on-court Aiava won the game, then broke to level the first set at 4-4.

Errors then crept into Aiava’s game and Jakupovic won eight straight points to win the first set 6-4.

With momentum on her side the Slovenian broke Aiava in the first game of the second set before the rain again sent the players to shelter. After about 40 minutes the players were back in action and we saw Jakupovic hold serve to lead 2-0, then she broke again to lead 3-0.

At this stage it looked like Jakupovic would stroll to the title.

Aiava was not giving in. She hit a service return winner to bring up 2 break points, then hit long one the first before converting the second with a passing shot to get to 1-3.

In the next game Jakupovic jumped out to 0-30 after a lobbing for a winner, then a shot into the net by Jakupovic made it 15-30. A winner by Aiava took it to 30 all before a long shot gave Jakupovic a break point that she hit out.

Errors were starting to creep into the game of the Slovenian and this helped Aiava get back into the game.

At 2-3 down, Aiava jumped out to 0-30 as Jakupovic hit into the net. A drop shot drew Aiava into the net but poor volleying lost the point to make it 15-30. A big winner by Aiava brought up a break point which Jakupovic handed to Aiava with a double fault for 3-3.

Aiava lost the first point of the next game when serving, with an error before getting out to 30-15. Two more errors gave a break point which was converted when Aiava again hit a shot into the net for Jakupovic to lead 4-3.

Strong winds made conditions difficult and both players were hitting shots long to make it 15-15, then Jakupovic hit out again for 15-30. Another double fault handed Aiava two break points. Solid hitting from Aiava, capped off by a winner down the line made it 4-4.

Aiava was in this position in the first set but failed to score a point to lose the first set.

Again errors allowed Jakupovic to get the edge.  When Aiava hit a short ball Jakupovic stepped in to hit a winner and go to 0-30. A missed smash by Aiava saw Jakupovic with three break points at 0-40 but Jakupovic mishit a shot to send the ball wide. Aiava got back to 30-40 after hitting a big winner, before she then missed a shot wide to hand Jakupovic the game and a 5-4 lead.

Aiava held two break back points in what would be the final game but was unable to convert and Jakupovic got the game to deuce before another Aiava down-the-line winner gave her another break point. Aiava had a golden opportunity to convert the break but missed a volley that should have been made.

Eventually Jakupovic found herself with a championship point and Aiava lost the match with a shot into the net. Jakupovic claimed the title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

“I had a good week. I really like it here; the courts are great,” Jakupovic said. . “I hadn’t played on clay for some time and I love to be back on it again.”

Australia’s Destanee Aiava has played several tournaments in Canberra over the past few years, and has reached two finals only to take home the runners-up trophy.

This time around the 17-year-old up and coming junior will be looking to claim her first singles title in Canberra. Her opponent in the final of the ACT Clay Court International will be Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic.

Jakupovic who is the fifth seed in Canberra, is ranked at 171 compared to Aiava who sits at 219. Aiava holds the head-to-head advantage, standing at 1-0 after Aiava won on clay last year 6-4 6-7(4) 7-6(1).

Both players reached the final after relatively easy straight set victories. Jakupovic defeated the in-form Brit, Gabriella Taylor 6-2, 6-2, while Aiava defeated the no. 2 seed from Japan Miyu Kato 6-3, 6-3. Aiava was far too powerful for the diminutive Japanese player.

Jakupovic has already tasted victory in Canberra having won the doubles title on Friday when she teamed up with Australia’s Priscilla Hon.

The final will be played at 11am on Sunday. It promises to be a close affair, although Jakupovic has not dropped a set at the tournament so far and has not allowed more than two games in any set that she has played.

Australia’s Destanee Aiava has twice reached a final in a tournament held in Canberra. Aiava lost the Clay Court final in 2016 to Japan’s Eri Hozumi 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) and last October Aiava lost to Olivia Rogowska 6-1, 6-2 on hardcourts. Both Hozumi and Destanee are back in Canberra for the ACT Clay Court International.

Hozumi lost in the second round to France’s Sherazad Reix, while Aiava has reached the semifinal where she will face the second seed Miyu Kato from Japan.

Aiava advanced to the semis after a solid 6-4, 6-2 win over Reix. The 17-year-old Australian showed good patience to come through the match.

Kato had an easier time in her quarterfinal match where she defeated Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-0, 6-1. As the scoreline suggests, Kato dominated play as Perez found it hard to keep the ball in play.

Kato is only 156cm compared to Aiava at 1.75cm. The Japanese player is fast around the court and keeps the ball in play. Aiava will again need to remain patient and work hard for a finals berth.

In the other semifinal we will see Great Britain’s Gabriella Taylor face Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic. Both players advanced to this matchup after straight set wins over Australians.

Jakupovic had the easier win, defeating Lizette Cabrera 6-2, 6-2. Taylor jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set of her match against Abbie Myers, before taking the first set 6-4. In the second set, Taylor saved a lot of set points to come from behind to claim the match in a tie-break.

Taylor has been the form player on the Australian pro circuit claiming titles in Mildura on grass, Perth and Launceston on hard courts. In late 2017 Taylor won in Mumbai, India. All of the titles were at the $25,000 tournament level.

Jakupovic, after playing her singles match, teamed up with Australia’s Priscilla Hon to claim the doubles title. The heavier workload for the Slovenian player could give Taylor the edge.

The first semifinal between Taylor and Jakupovic will start at 11am at the Canberra Tennis Centre in Lyneham, with Aiava and Kato to follow. The women’s final will be played on Sunday, starting at 11am. The winner will earn 80 rankings points, with the runner-up taking 48.