Kate Withers
TENNIS
The Bruce Cup is one of the most illustrious teams events on the junior tennis calendar and Traralgon’s own Chelsea Elliott has earned her spot on Team Victoria for the 2018 event.
Chelsea, who is the top-ranked junior in the state for her birth year, will join six other players from across the state to vie for the under-12 School Sport Australia championship in October.
Chelsea topped the pool of 32 girls at last month’s trials and will head to Adelaide with mum Christina who said the 12-year-old “constantly surprises” her.
“I don’t go in with any expectations because I don’t want to put pressure on her but she just amazes me most of the time,” Christina said.
The Lavalla Catholic College student has just come off a big win during the school holidays at a gold under-12 tournament in Glen Iris and even tested herself in a gold 14s tournament.
“It was a real step-up. A lot of the girls are taller and stronger and have matured a bit more,” Chelsea said.
October’s Bruce Cup will also run in tandem with another gold tournament, meaning Chelsea will rack-up some serious hours on court.
“A few of the people around here have done the Bruce Cup before so I’ve been wanting to do it for some time,” she said.
“You play singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Bruce Cup and I like the team side of it.”
It also clashes with the Judy Dalton Cup, where Chelsea was a victorious member of team Central Gippsland in 2016 and 2017, but the hot shot said she wanted to “try something different” this year.
“The Bruce Cup is a really prestigious event and I haven’t done it before,” she said.
“But I always like the teams events because sometimes when you’re playing tournaments on your own, if you lose then you just go home.
“But with the teams, you’ve got that team result where other people might win if you don’t so I like that part of it.”
