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Chloe’s set for top tennis

Chloe West is determined to make it on the professional tennis circuit after playing tennis since the age of five.Chloe has overcome several setbacks to now be ranked as the number one under-18 female player in Victoria.Chloe West is determined to make it on the professional tennis circuit after playing tennis since the age of five.Chloe has overcome several setbacks to now be ranked as the number one under-18 female player in Victoria.

By Marc McGowan
CHLOE West has stood out on the tennis court since she first picked up a racquet at the tender age of five.
“I went down to the squash courts with my parents and I was pretty good at it and then my parents enrolled me in tennis lessons,” Chloe, now 17, said.
“I started playing competition and gradually started getting more serious.”
She may have been pretty good at squash, but her tennis skills were nothing short of outstanding.
Just six years after hitting her first groundstroke, Chloe was hamming it up in the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) as an 11-year-old.
“I started off in Milo Squad, then Extension Squad and then the VIS. The coach of the Extension Squad was also a coach in the VIS and he asked whether I wanted to join,” she said.
Her meteoric rise came to a rapid halt, as injury and illness became a constant hindrance.
A back injury was the first of a terrible run of bad luck that forced Chloe onto the sidelines for an extended period.
“I got the back injury and I couldn’t train,” she said.
“I couldn’t actually do anything; I even had trouble sitting down. I had changed my technique and I started getting tightness and it was really sore.”
Yoga and massages became a way of life for the Cranbourne teenager and, after six months, she eventually overcame the ailment – but not before she was forced out of the VIS program.
While the back injury had a major impact on her career, it was contracting glandular fever that proved to be her greatest setback.
“That was the worst; it always left me run down. I got it in January (of 2003; as a 14-year-old) and I only just got over it now,” she said.
“Halfway through last year I started hitting again. A lot of days I would hit for only 20 minutes, but I had to stop because I was exhausted.”
After playing some lower-tier tournaments at the end of last year, Chloe’s career is now well and truly back on track, evidenced by last week’s win at the $10,000 West Sydney Open in New South Wales.
The fifth seed in the tournament, she stormed to the final without dropping a set and then overcame Tasmanian 17-year-old Anna Wishink – who also had not lost a set enroute to the final – 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to take out the tournament.
She will now head to Queensland to play in more Australian Money Tournaments and ITF events.
All of this is without any help from Tennis Victoria or Tennis Australia.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure why because I’m number-one in Victoria (in the 18-and-unders),” she said.
“I can’t afford to get (full-time) lessons. It’s been really hard; I get my money from (doing well at) tournaments and my family has been helping out a lot.”
The ANZ Bank has agreed to cover Chloe’s entry fees for tournaments, as well as provide some petrol money. She also has a racquet sponsorship with Head, but the expenses of being an elite tennis player are racking up.
“It’s quite hard work – you travel by yourself and have to be pretty dedicated,” she said.
Clyde Tennis Club coach Les Waugh helped Chloe out when she lost her place in the VIS program and is glowing in his praise for his protege.
“She’s very determined and doesn’t like losing. She has a will to win and is extremely dedicated,” he said.
Chloe has some lofty short-term goals.
“The first is to get a world ranking by the end of the year and then get into the 20s in Australia (in the open rankings),” she said.
“I have to get my world ranking within 300 so that I can get into the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) and I would love to go overseas next year if I can finish the year up well.”

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