It is with great pleasure that we introduce our Women’s Premier League team for season 2017.
The season kicks off on Saturday the 11th of November with a match (start time 1.00pm) at Liston Tennis Club. Our team, finalists in season 2016, will start against the season against Dendy Park. The five-match home and away season will continue the same weekend with a match up against Liston TC on Sunday the 12th at MCC Glen Iris Valley.
The match format is two doubles matches and four singles matches, thus 4 to 6 players generally play each match. Due to many of the players having tournament commitments, we have a large squad to choose from. These include the below;
2017 MCC Glen Iris Valley Women’s Premier League Team
Jaimee Fourlis
Jaimee will again lead of team this season as the number 1 position after a great 2017 season to date. She has started the transition into senior tennis after achieving a career high junior world ranking of 38 earlier in 2016. At 16, Fourlis became the youngest Aussie in four years to win a title on the Australian Pro Tour since Ash Barty. Notably, Fourlis is 152 days younger than Barty was at the time. (Read more here)
There were many highlights in 2017 including Main Draw appearances at the Australian Open and French Open.
Jaimee is currently ranked 328 in the world on the WTA tour and is still just 17 years of age. She started training with Vida Tennis at age 6 and is now also in the Tennis Australia High Performance program.
Jaimee Fourlis
Zoe Hives
Zoe has been a long term team member of the MCC Premier League Team. Zoe, a country girl from Ballarat, won her first Pro Circuit title in 2015 as an 18 year old and reached a career high ranking of 451 in the world at the time. Injury hampered her ranking climb in 2016 but once back to fully fit in 2017 Zoe has jumped to 386 in the world. Zoe is coached by Michael Logarzo, who has been a great mentor for her during the transition from junior to senior tennis.
Zoe Hives
Jess Moore
This will be Jess’s first season at MCC Glen Iris. Jess, aged 27, grew up in Western Australia and has been on the pro tour for almost a decade and has a current doubles world ranking of 99. In 2008 Jess achieved her high singles ranking of 132 but in recent years has focused her tennis towards doubles.
Jess Moore
Viktorija Rajicic
Viktorija will join the team for a second season with the club. The former world number 279 played a large part in the team making the finals in 2016 and we look forward to seeing her on court with us this season.
Viktorija Rajicic
Genevieve Lorbergs
Gen will be our team Captain once again in season 2017 and has been instrumental in organising players and team activities. Gen had a great college Tennis career in the US attending the University of Central Florida and has now turned her attention to the Pro Tour.
2017 has been a good year to date for Gen, increasing her singles ranking to to 696 and her doubles ranking to 386.
You can read an article about her time here
Gen Lorbergs
Cara Black
Cara Black needs to introduction. She is a professional tennis player from Zimbabwe, winning 60 WTA and 11 ITF titles. A former no. 1 ranked women’s doubles player in the WTA Rankings, she has won ten Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles and mixed doubles combined. By winning the mixed doubles title at the 2010 Australian Open, Black became the third woman in the Open Era to complete a Career Grand Slam in mixed doubles (after Martina Navratilova and Daniela Hantuchová). Having won one singles title on tour, she also peaked at no. 31 in the singles rankings in March 1999.
We look forward to welcoming Cara to our team and the club.
Cara Black with the Wimbledon trophy
Gabriella Da Silva Fick
Gabriella will join the team for her first season with the club after injury caused her not to play for us last season. At age 17, she is ranked 813 on the WTA tour rankings. She also has a doubles world ranking of 537.
Gabriella DA SILVA FICK
Katherine Westbury
Katherine is a former Thai-New Zealand player who now resides in Melbourne. This will be her second season with the club in the Premier League team. On 3 October 2011, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 576 on the WTA tour. Katherine has held a world ranking for more than 6 years and her favourite surface is hard court. She has been a member of our club for several years and can often be seen practising with her father and coach Tom.
Katherine Westbury
Eliza Long
Eliza Long was a 16&U National Champion before taking up a US College position at a top 10 University. Before making the decision to go to college she achieved a world WTA ranking of 970 in 2012 at age 17 and competed in the Australia Open Juniors multiple times.
Eliza has a great connection with our club having played Premier League for the MCC Tennis Section is past years as well as winning the Glen Iris Valley Club Championships in 2012. She also has been coached by our club’s Head coach Kane Dewhurst since the age of 9.
