A commemorative plaque honouring born-and-bred Canberra tennis star Annabel Ellwood was unveiled today at the Lyneham Tennis Centre’s Tennis ACT Walk of Fame.
The 43-year-old former no. 1 ranked Australian female player said the acknowledgement gave her an opportunity to reflect on the opportunities she was afforded as a junior in Canberra.
“You don’t really know it at the time how fortunate you are,” she said, “I was really lucky to have the opportunities I had.
“At the time you don’t realise there’s only four countries that hold a grand slam, so just the fact they have a grand slam, they’ve got the funding, the opportunity to have junior players travel overseas.”
The ACT’s highest ever world ranked female player, Ellwood retired from the tour in 2002 aged 24 after winning nine ITF singles titles and 14 doubles titles.
Her name now fittingly sits alongside previous inductees Wally Masur, Keith Carnall, Ken Willis, Alison Ide, Ros Balodis, Thomas Charles Boag, Bruce Larkham, Peter Roberts and Graham Bartlett OAM at the entry to the Lyneham Tennis Centre.
Coming from a sport-mad family with four older brothers, her father, 1950s and 60s Wallabies centre Beres Ellwood, built a tennis court to encourage his children.
“It snowballed from there,” she said.
Growing up in the Canberra region, Ellwood honed her skills competing locally while training at the AIS and representing both the ACT and her country.
Now today with vastly improved facilities and pathways, Ellwood strongly believes Canberra “punches well above its weight” in producing elite tennis talent.
“Obviously with Nick Kyrgios, he’s exceptional, and we’ve got a young junior Charlie Camus.
“Considering we’re a smaller population and I guess we don’t have the depth in competition that the other states have I think we’re doing very well.
While she rarely hits the court these days, Ellwood gets great joy out of working as a tennis coach at Radford.
“Just seeing the confidence that kids get, even if they don’t continue with the tennis, I think it’s a good sport to learn some good skills and get some confidence in,” she said.
Reflecting on her pro career, Ellwood’s personal highlights include a Federation Cup tie in South Africa, her last match at Melbourne Park centre court for a mixed doubles game in the AO, and a straight sets victory over Jennifer Capriati in the first round of the 1996 US Open.
“The Capriati win, it didn’t dawn on me until I sat in my hotel room watching ESPN and they said, ‘Jennifer Capriati has lost to this unknown Australian,’ and I thought ‘that’s me!’.”
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