Olympic selection for local player Ellen Perez

Olympic Selection

On Tuesday 29 June the Australian Olympic Selection Committee announced an eleven member Olympic tennis team to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.  A well deserved selection was Ellen Perez paired with Sam Stosur in the Women’s Doubles.  The Australian Olympic Committee has named Australia’s biggest-ever Olympic tennis team, with the 11 athletes eclipsing the 10-strong teams from Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016, and Sam Stosur becoming the first Australian tennis player to make five Olympics.

World No 1 Ash Barty and world No 15 Alex de Minaur headline the eight olympic debutants on the team, with Rio Olympians John Millman and John Peers returning for their second games.

Stosur and Barty are joined by Ajla Tomljanovic in women’s singles, with Barty teaming up with Storm Sanders and Stosur with Ellen Perez in women’s doubles.

Millman, Nick Kyrgios and James Duckworth join De Minaur in the men’s singles, with Millman partnering Luke Saville, and John Peers playing alongside De Minaur in men’s doubles.

Only two women will have represented Australia at more olympics than Stosur – her Tokyo 2020 teammates Mary Hanna (equestrian) and Jian Fang Lay (table tennis), who will both compete at their sixth games in Tokyo.

Alicia Molik, an Athens 2004 women’s singles bronze medallist, will captain the women’s team and national men’s coach Jaymon Crabb will lead the men’s team.

Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic Team for Tokyo Ian Chesterman congratulated the athletes at the June 29th announcement.

On receiving the news proud parents John and Mitz Perez were “bursting with pride and excitement”.  Over the years KSDTA has supported Ellen as she embarked on her tennis journey.  Ellen turned professional in 2017 after completing her studies at the Georgia University in the United States and has travelled the world playing tennis ever since except for a number of months in 2020 due to Covid.