Apisah vying for SP Award

By MELTON PAIS
PAPUA New Guinea’s leading tennis player Abigail Tere-Apisah is among three women who are finalists vying for the Female Athlete of the Year award at the SP Sports Awards.
The others are Rachael Sapery James (triathlon) and Dika Toua (weightlifting).
Tere-Apisah’s recognition came about after she became the first Papua New Guinean with a current career high ranking of 334 to compete at a major regional WTA tournament and was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 by Chinese teen sensation Xinyu Wang last December.
Tere-Apisha booked an Asia-Pacific wildcard after beating Jing-Jing Lu 6-1, 6-1 in less than one hour in the women’s singles final at the Australian Open Asia-Pacific Wildcard playoff in Zhuhai, China last year.
After qualifying for the final, Tere-Apisah was happy with her performance and aimed to stay on the top but her hopes of advancing to a top 16 spot came undone as Wang proved too strong.
“For Tere-Apisah it has always been her dream to do well at the Australian Open but it was shattered,” father Kwalam said.
“It’s not over yet, she can still overcome the challenges and achieve her dream,” he added.
In an earlier match in April last year, Tere-Apisah continued her strong form on the Australian tournament schedule winning a women’s singles tournament in Gosford, NSW.
Her fifth win on the Australian Pro Circuit tour ensured she maintained her Women’s Tennis Association world ranking of 386.
Tere-Apisah’s coach and father Kwalam Apisah said the ranking was a huge achievement as she was the first player from the Oceania Tennis Federation to have progressed that far in world rankings.
Apisah said his daughter was now planning to play on the US professional circuit.
He said Abigail was hoping to play in tournaments in Florida and before eyeing the European circuit.