Tennis player turned commentator Sam Groth will be the Liberal candidate for the ultra-marginal seat of Nepean at November’s state election.
The commentator for Channel 9, which owns The Age, attracted 74 votes while his nearest David Burgess, the party’s state electorate chair, received 33 votes. Former Bentleigh MP Elizabeth Miller secured four votes.
Former Australian tennis player Sam Groth will be the Liberal Party’s candidate for the state seat of Nepean.Credit:ninevms
The Liberals need to win Nepean, which takes in a section of the Mornington Peninsula, back from Labor to have any chance of winning the next election. Labor holds the seat by a margin of less than one per cent.
The former tennis pro, who holds the record for the world’s fastest serve, was backed by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a tennis enthusiast, and the office of Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, which is keen to inject fresh faces into the state party.
Mr Guy tweeted congratulations to Mr Groth on his preselection win.
Support also came from a string of other Liberal figures including former premier Jeff Kennett and Brighton MP James Newbury.
In his written endorsement, Mr Frydenberg said the candidate had a “strong commitment to Liberal Party values and is committed to promoting them in the public arena”.
“He will bring the same drive and determination he has demonstrated in his sporting and professional career to winning back the seat for the Liberal Party and making a valuable contribution to the Parliament.”
In his brochure distributed to members before the ballot, Mr Groth said that he was “ready to deliver [and] ready to win back Nepean”, and “use his extensive media and public relations experience” to be an “effective and powerful voice for local issues”.
“I’m living the Liberal dream,” Mr Groth wrote.
Mr Groth, who commentated at the Australian Open, has been a party member for less than a year and required special dispensation from the party’s administrative committee to allow him to run.
According to Mr Groth’s Tennis Australia profile, the NSW Riverina-born player has a number of titles under his belt; the 2016 Las Vegas Challenger being his most recent.
His record for fastest serve, which registered at 263km/h, was set at the 2012 ATP Challenger in Busan, Korea.
His potential opponentfor the seat would be Labor member Chris Brayne, who is the first Labor MP to hold the seat since it was created in 2002. Mr Brayne took the seat in the 2018 state election, but his first term was interrupted when he lost his driver’s licence for three months after speeding – an act he described as “reprehensible” and apologised for.
The Andrews government holds 55 lower house seats compared to the Coalition’s 27.
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