22 December 2014 | Tennis West

Esperance, situated on WA’s far South Coast, will be cheering on former world No.1 Roger Federer at Australian Open 2015.

 

Esperance finished 2014 as Australia’s third most enthusiastic tennis town, narrowly edged out by Kendall (NSW) and Casino (NSW) to top the AO Tennis Blitz town leaderboard. Kendall won the choice of which world No.1 player to throw their support behind, selecting Novak Djokovic over fellow world No.1 Serena Williams. 

 

When Esperance Southcoast Tennis Club AO Blitz coordinator Amanda Anderson was contacted by Tennis Australia with news that Roger Federer was going to be playing for Esperance at the 2015 Australian Open she was in disbelief.

 

“It’s just amazing, ridiculous,” Amanda said, “Roger is just about everyone in the world’s favourite tennis player.”

 

Excitement had already surrounded the AO Blitz results when Southcoast had secured the State top spot and ended up third nationally. Ranking third nationally was always going to guarantee a highly ranked player for Esperance at the Australian Open.

 

In WA, Esperance edged out Applecross and Albany who ended up 16th and 30th respectively.

No one in the Club dreamed that it would be possible for the Club to be State winners again let alone be served up the world’s favourite and former No 1 tennis player Roger Federer.

 

The spotlight will be on the Fed and Esperance during the Grand Slam event being held in Melbourne commencing January 19th.

 

There was a fierce rivalry between the top towns during the final weeks of the online ‘Hit the Target’ competition and multiple first place changes over the course of the competition. The top 20 town-player match-ups are as follows:

 

1	Novak Djokovic – Kendall (NSW)	11	Andy Murray – Melbourne (VIC)
2	Serena Williams – Casino (NSW)	12	Agnieszka Radwanska – Grafton (NSW)
3	Roger Federer – Esperance (WA)	13	Tomas Berdych – Moulden (NT)
4	Maria Sharapova – Inverell (NSW)	14	Eugenie Bouchard – Mornington (VIC)
5	Rafael Nadal – Warrnambool (VIC)	15	Juan Martin Del Potro – Henley Beach (SA)
6	Simona Halep – Melton South (VIC)	16	Caroline Wozniacki – Applecross (WA)
7	Stan Wawrinka – Templestowe (VIC)	17	Milos Raonic – Coolum Beach (QLD)
8	Petra Kvitova – Barraba (NSW)	18	Angelique Kerber – Ivanhoe (VIC)
9	Kei Nishikori – Sunbury (VIC)	19	Marin Cilic – Harrison (ACT)
10	Ana Ivanovic – Biloela (QLD)	20	Dominika Cibulkova – Mosman (NSW)

 

The AO Tennis Blitz aligns all main draw players, 128 men and 128 women, with the top 256 ranked towns with Australian Open players based on their world ranking on the date of acceptance into the event. For more information on how points were awarded to towns please visit tennis.com.au. 

 

By taking part in the online game Hit the Target, Jim Rutherford (Kendall, NSW) and Rachel O’Connor (Warrnambool, Vic) have won a once in a lifetime opportunity to hit on centre court on Saturday 17 January 2015.

 

In WA, Applecross Tennis Club won the Ultimate Club Challenge state prize, consisting of a $5000 tennis grant. For more information on what the Tennis Club did to win this prize, see the full article available here.

 

Applecross Senior High School was also lucky enough to win the Ultimate School Challenge for WA and have been awarded with a $5000 tennis grant. For more information click here.

 

Top 100 town leaderboard and top 100 men’s and women’s player-town list is available here.