Ashleigh Barty and Daria Gavrilova have taken time out from their preparations for the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group II first round, to meet with nineteen students from Lyneham High School.
The student who are part of the school’s Sporting Excellence at Lyneham (SEAL) program, participated in an on court session from the new Tennis for Secondary Schools resource, before watching Australia’s top two women complete their training session.
The girls who are involved in a variety of sports had the opportunity to ask Ash and Dash a number of questions including career highlights, overcoming challenges, and how they got involved in sport.
The SEAL program provides a pathway for students that excel within their sporting field, providing them an opportunity to train for their sport along with access to wellbeing and education.
SEAL Wellbeing and Education Coordinator Kate Davoren said the opportunities like these were so valuable for the students.
“To actually get up close and personal and see them in the person and see them practice, but also have the opportunity to ask those questions they wouldn’t normally have the chance to ask is so important. To see that they [Barty & Gavrilova] are just normal people and that it could be these girls one day.
The day was a huge success with the girls thrilled with being provided the opportunity and inspiring the school to further grow tennis within the school.
“They have love it. They were brimming with excitement on the way here. It’s not often that something like this comes along.
“We already do a bit of tennis at Lyneham, but it’s definably inspired me and the girls to get it up and running even more,” Davoren added.
Camila Felix-Vonarx is one of the students involved in the tennis program and was inspired by the chat with the players, highlighting that it would be amazing to play Fed Cup for Australia.
“I think it would be really cool to play there. They said it was one of the best experiences they had in their career.”
Two-day ticket packages and single session tickets are available through Ticketek.
Gates will open on Saturday at 9.45am with the opening ceremony to take place at 10.45am. Play will commence at 11.00am.
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