31 August 2018 | Tennis Australia

Tennis Australia will send a team of six Indigenous Australians to compete at the 2018 Oceania Tennis Championships in Apia, Samoa from Monday 3 September to Saturday 8 September. The team will be the first all-Indigenous team to represent Australia in tennis at an international event.

Natalie Roe and Harrison Lee-Schell, both from the Northern Territory will be joined by Anzac Leidig and Ella Merritt from NSW, Janaya Smith from Tasmania and Adam Lasky from Victoria to wear the green and gold on the international stage.

The six Aussies will come up against players from the Oceania region including Fiji, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Kiribati, Norfolk Islands, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and New Zealand.

All members of the team are affiliated with the Evonne Goolagong Foundation. Roe, Merritt, Smith and Lasky have all successfully come through the Evonne Goolagong Foundation pathway, which aims to use tennis as a vehicle to increase opportunities for Indigenous Australians whilst Leidig is currently employed as the Head Coach and Project co-ordinator for the foundation.

The competition format will see players contest team, singles and doubles events over the six days with first, second and third place being awarded in each.

A list of final entries for the 2018 Oceania Championships can be found here: http://www.oceaniatennis.com/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Oceania-Championships-FINAL-List-of-Entries.pdf

With the daily program available here: http://www.oceaniatennis.com/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/OCEANIA-CHAMPS-PROGRAM-SEPTEMBER-2018.pdf

Full Team

Natalie Roe, 19, Malak, NT

Ella Merritt, 23, Terrigal, NSW

Janaya Smith, 22, Kingston, TAS

Harrison Lee-Schell, 31, Darwin, NT

Adam Lasky, 23, Geelong, VIC

Anzac Leidig, 37, Sawtell, NSW