The nation’s top junior girls have joined the Australian Billie Jean King Cup team in Brisbane this week for a four-day training camp.
Brisbane, Australia, 10 April 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Six of the nation’s most promising junior girls have joined the Australian Billie Jean King Cup team in Brisbane this week.
The three highest-ranked juniors in the 2009 birth year, as well as the three girls who represented Australia in the 14-and-under ITF World Junior Tennis competition in Malaysia last month, have been invited to attend a four-day training camp.
Jessica Moore, a former Billie Jean King Cup representative, is one of the Tennis Australia coaches leading the camp.
The camp’s theme is ‘pressure is a privilege’, an ode to Billie Jean King’s iconic quote, and will encompass a range of on-court and off-court experiences.
A jam-packed schedule includes training on the Queensland Tennis Centre’s clay courts, strength and conditioning training, as well as team-building and wellbeing activities.
Camp participants will also mingle with the Australian team and support courtside during the tie at Pat Rafter Arena.
“We see it as an awesome opportunity to link the Billie Jean King Cup team with our aspiring players coming through,” Moore said.
“We’re aiming to really reinforce that sense of team and working together, and what it means to represent your country.”
| Billie Jean King Cup Junior training camp participants |
||
| Player | Age | State |
| Koharu Nishikawa | 15 | Vic |
| Renee Alame | 14 | NSW |
| Jizelle Sibai | 14 | NSW |
| Emilie Chen | 14 | NSW |
| Vesna Marinkov | 14 | NSW |
| Jennifer Ott | 13 | NSW |
A star-struck Emilie Chen was overjoyed to meet the Australian team after arriving in Brisbane today.
“I see them on social media and in videos, so to see them in real life is pretty unreal to me,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
The participants are all determined to make the most of the opportunity to be part of Australia’s first home tie in the Billie Jean King Cup competition in five years.
“It’s very exciting,” Renee Alame beamed. “When I got the email I was pumped and excited to come and represent Australia in this camp.”
An inspired Vesna Marinkov believes “it’s honestly really exciting to experience where I hope to be one day”, while Jizelle Sibai declared “I feel like I’m going to learn a lot”.
The two-day Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Qualifier tie against Mexico begins on Friday 12 April.
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