Ellen Perez (born 10 October 1995) is an Australian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Perez has won five doubles titles on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

, one doubles title on the

WTA Challenger Tour WTA 125 tournaments are an international series of professional women's tennis tournaments organized by the Women's Tennis Association since 2012. In the past (2012–2015) sometimes called the WTA Challenger seriesITF Circuit. Her career-high rankings in singles and doubles are world No. 162 and No. 15, achieved August 2019 and October 2022, respectively. Perez made her

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

main-draw debut at the

2016 Australian Open The 2016 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18 and 31 January 2016. It was the 104th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of event ...

in doubles with

Belinda Woolcock Belinda Woolcock (born 24 January 1995) is an Australian tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of 290 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), achieved on 18 November 2019, and a career-high WTA doubles ranking of 207, reached on ...

; they lost in the first round to Jessica Moore and

Storm Sanders Storm Hunter (née Sanders; born 11 August 1994) is an Australian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 119, on 18 October 2021, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 8, on 24 October 2022. ...

. Perez made her first singles Grand Slam appearance at the 2016 US Open, after winning the Australian Wildcard Play-off.

Personal life

Ellen is the daughter of John and Milića Perez and sister to Matt Perez. Ellen is of Spanish descent on her father's side and of Macedonian descent on her mother's side. She picked up a tennis racket at the age of three after receiving a

totem tennis Totem tennis (also known as tether tennis or swingball) is a game where two players use racquets to strike a tennis or sponge ball which has been attached with string to the top of a vertical pole. The pole is either driven into soft ground or ...

pole as a Christmas gift, and she started regular coaching at the age of seven. In 2012, she won the Gallipoli Youth Cup held in Ipswich, Queensland. She attended the University of Georgia in the United States from 2014 to 2017.

Career

2012–2014: The beginnings

Perez made her debut on the

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

in March 2012 in Bundaberg, losing in three sets to

Jennifer Elie Jennifer Elie (born September 22, 1986) is an American former professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 219 in singles, achieved June 2017, and 237 in doubles, set in May 2013. Elie has won two singles titles and six doubl ...

. In September 2013, she recorded her first main-draw singles win in Toowoomba after qualifying. Perez reached the quarterfinals losing to

Azra Hadzic Azra Hadzic ( bs, Azra Hadžić, ; born 26 November 1994) is a retired Australian tennis player of Bosnian descent. Hadzic won one singles title on the ITF tour in her career. On 1 April 2013, she reached her best singles ranking of world num ...

. In December 2013, she won her first ITF doubles title in Hong Kong with

Abbie Myers Abbie Jane Myers (born 18 July 1994) is an Australian tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 257 in singles and 182 in doubles. Myers has won one singles title and 17 doubles titles on tournaments of the ITF Women's Circuit. She ...

. In 2014, Perez reached the quarterfinal of the

Burnie International The Burnie International is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour and the ITF Women's Circuit. It is a $75k level tournament for the Challenger Tour and a $60,000 level tourn ...

and Melbourne, and then competed on the ITF Circuit in Europe until June when she started attending college in the United States. Perez ended 2014 with a singles rank of 655 and a doubles rank of 517.

2015–2016: First Grand Slam appearance

In June 2015, Perez returned to play at Bethany Beach where she qualified and reached the singles quarterfinals and the doubles final. The following week in Charlotte, she reached the doubles final. She played across U.S. ITF events for the remainder of 2015. Perez started her 2016 season in June in U.S. without qualifying for the main draw. In July, she qualified for and won her first singles ITF title in Brussels without dropping a set. She reached a semifinal and final at two subsequent events. Perez won four doubles titles in five weeks across June and July 2016. In August, Perez won the Australian Wildcard Play-off to make her Grand Slam singles debut at the US Open. She lost to

Zhang Shuai Zhang Shuai (; ; born 21 January 1989) is a Chinese professional tennis player. She is a two-time Grand Slam champion in women's doubles, having won the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 US Open, both alongside Samantha Stosur. Zhang also ...

in straight sets. Perez said of the experience "It definitely didn't go as planned, or as hoped, but it was great to be able to have my Grand Slam debut and get out on court in front of all the fans and what-not. It was nice." She ended 2016 with a singles rank of 632 and doubles rank of 414.

2017–2018: First WTA match win

Perez began the season with a wildcard into the

Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...

qualifying where she defeated

Kateryna Kozlova Kateryna Baindl ( uk, Катерина Ігорівна Баіндль, née Kozlova; born 20 February 1994) is a Ukrainian tennis player. On 19 February 2018, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 62. On 22 October 2012, she ...

, ranked 101 in the world. She lost to

Naomi Broady Naomi Broady (; born 28 February 1990) is a British tennis player. She has won one WTA doubles title, as well as nine singles titles and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 7 March 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of wor ...

in the second round. At the Australian Open qualifying, Perez defeated

Tadeja Majerič Tadeja Majerič (born 31 August 1990, in Maribor) is a former tennis player from Slovenia. Majerič has won nine singles and six doubles title on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 25 November 2013, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 1 ...

, then lost to

Ana Bogdan Ana Bogdan (born 25 November 1992) is a Romanian professional tennis player. Having made her tour debut in 2007, she peaked at No. 46 in the WTA rankings in October 2022. Bogdan had a successful junior career, reaching world No. 2 on 5 January ...

. She returned to play in June where she reached three consecutive doubles finals, winning one. Doubles success continued throughout the rest of the year. In July, Perez qualified for and reached the singles final of Gatineau. This increased her singles ranking to a career-high of 363. Perez returned to Australia and reached the semifinals of Toowoomba and quarterfinals of Cairns. Perez began the 2018 season, after being given wildcard into the

where she upset world No. 11,

Kristina Mladenovic Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (; sr, Кристина "Кики" Младеновић, Kristina "Kiki" Mladenović, ; born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a nine-time Grand Slam ch ...

, in the first round. Her first win on the

came when Mladenovic retired with the score 4–6, 2–4. Perez lost in round two to

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley (given name), Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian ...

. At the Australian Open, Perez lost in the first round of qualifying to

Valentini Grammatikopoulou Valentini Grammatikopoulou ( el, Βαλεντίνη Γραμματικοπούλου; born 9 February 1997) is a Greek tennis player. On 22 August 2022, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 143. On 28 February 2022, she peaked at No ...

. She made the second round at

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...

, Launceston and Perth, and then reached the final of the Clay Court International in April, losing to

Jaimee Fourlis Jaimee Fourlis (born 17 September 1999) is a professional Australian tennis player of Greek descent. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 147, achieved on 18 July 2022, and a highest doubles ranking of world No. 138, reached on 2 ...

. Perez traveled to Europe and North America's ITF Circuit with limited success. In September, she attempted to qualify for two WTA tournaments in Asia before returning to Australia in October where she reached four consecutive ITF finals.

2019–2021: Three WTA titles, Olympics debut and quarterfinals in doubles

Perez commenced 2021 retiring in the first round of the Grampians Trophy. She made the second round of qualifying in both

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

and Adelaide International. In March, she won the

Abierto Zapopan The Abierto Zapopan, also known as Abierto Akron Zapopan for sponsorship reasons, was a WTA 250-level professional women's tennis tournament. It used to take place on outdoor hardcourts, around the month of March at the Panamerican Tennis Cente ...

in doubles with

Astra Sharma Astra Sharma (born 11 September 1995) is a Singaporean-born Australian professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of 84 in singles and world No. 91 in doubles. Sharma has won one singles title and three doubles titles on the W ...

, it was her second WTA title. In May, Perez reached the third and final round of the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

qualifying. In June, she qualified for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, but lost in the first round to fellow qualifier

Clara Burel Clara Burel (; born 24 March 2001) is a French tennis player. On 21 February 2022, she peaked at No. 74 in the WTA singles rankings. In singles, she reached two Grand Slam junior finals and won two silver medals at the Youth Summer Olympics. I ...

In July, Perez partnered

Samantha Stosur Samantha Jane Stosur ( ; born 30 March 1984) is an Australian professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in doubles, a ranking which she first achieved on 6 February 2006 and held for 61 consecutive weeks. Also a former top ten s ...

in women's doubles at the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, where they reached the quarterfinals. In the same month, Perez entered the final of an ITF event in Lisbon, Portugal. In October, she reached another ITF final in Portugal. She won her third title at the 2021 Tenerife Ladies Open with

Ulrikke Eikeri Ulrikke Pia Eikeri (born 16 December 1992) is a Norwegian tennis player. Eikeri has won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, one doubles title on WTA Challenger Tour and 11 singles titles and 30 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She reached the ...

. Perez ended 2021 with a singles rank of 196 and a doubles rank of 42.

2022: Wimbledon QF, two WTA 1000 finals & top 30 debut in doubles

Perez lost in the first round of the Australian Open qualifying. She reached the quarterfinals at

, and back-to-back WTA 1000 finals at the Canadian Open and at the

Cincinnati Open The Cincinnati Masters or Cincinnati Open (branded as the Western & Southern Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the olde ...

with

Nicole Melichar Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; cz, Nicole Melicharová, ) is an American tennis player who specializes in doubles. She has won twelve doubles titles on the WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles title as well as two singles and seven double ...

Performance timelines

''Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup/Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.''

Singles

''Current through the 2022 San Diego Open.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Pan Pacific Open.''

Significant finals

WTA 1000 finals

Doubles: 2 (runner-ups)

WTA career finals

Doubles: 13 (5 titles, 8 runner-ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Doubles: 1 (title)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 11 (2 titles, 9 runner–ups)

Doubles: 26 (18 titles, 10 runner–ups)

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Ellen Perez
at the Georgia Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Ellen 1995 births Living people Australian female tennis players Australian people of Spanish descent Australian people of Macedonian descent Sportspeople from Wollongong Tennis people from New South Wales Georgia Lady Bulldogs tennis players Olympic tennis players of Australia Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Australian women