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Ellen's Story
Born in Wollongong, Ellen Perez first started playing tennis at seven-years-old after her dad recognised her strength and coordination.
She soon joined the Oak Flats Tennis Club, where she began to perfect her game. She later joined the Tennis Australia academy at Melbourne Park and as a junior she qualified for the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
A seven-time finalist and two-time champion on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles circuit, Ellen won her maiden title alongside Daria Saville at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in 2019 without dropping a set.
Then paired up with Astra Sharma (AUS), Ellen won her second WTA doubles title at the Abierto Zapopan in Mexico.
Ellen has also won two singles titles and 17 doubles titles on the International Tennis Federation circuit since she began playing professionally in 2013.
Ellen played tennis at the University of Georgia, where she majored in sport management. She was a recipient of the Leighton Ballew Women's Tennis Scholarship after proving instrumental to the University of Georgia's Bulldogs team, helping them advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) final four in her first year. She held a record of 21-6 in her second season, as well advancing to the semi-finals of both the singles and doubles tournaments of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships.
Ellen qualified for her first Wimbledon singles main draw in June 2021, her third grand slam singles appearance of her career.
Alternatively, she has appeared in the main doubles draw at grand slams 12 times as of Tokyo 2020. At the Olympics she strung together wins with doubles partner Sam Stosur, with the unseeded duo making it to the quarter-finals. With Ash Barty and Storm Sanders also progressing to the quarter-finals, it was the first time Australia had two pairs in the women's doubles quarter-finals. Ellen and Sam overpowered Romania's Monica Niculescu and Raluca Olaru 7-6(3) 7-5 in the second round after coming back from 1-5 down in the first set.
Ellen achieved a career-best grand slam result in the form of a semi-final berth in the women’s doubles at the 2022 US Open alongside Nicole Melichar-Martinez and was also part of the team that represented Australia at the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup Finals, where they finished in second place.
Ellen qualified and finished runner-up at the 2023 WTA Finals in doubles and entered the Top 10 in doubles for the first time in 2023.
Ellen participated in both the women's and mixed doubles tournaments at the 2024 Australian Open. Unfortunately, she exited the tournament in the first round of the women's doubles and the second round of the mixed doubles.