It's blatantly obvious that former Hong Kong standout, Paulette Moreno, hadn't lost her timing one bit, as she jetted into town the same week the Hong Kong Junior Fed Cup Team were flying off to Barcelona to compete in the World Finals after successfully qualifying for the first time when placing third in the regionals back in May. HKTA General Manager, Mrs. Janet Hardisty, took the opportunity to meet up with her, and to find out just exactly what she had been up to since she left the territory.

Paulette was the number one ranked lady in Hong Kong for several years in the 80s and the early 90s. She held a career-high ranking of No. 231 in singles and No. 178 in doubles, both attained in the second week of February 1988, and reached Top-30 in the ITF Junior World Rankings when she was the number one junior in Hong Kong.

She played at Junior Wimbledon on several occasions and in 1987, reached the Girls' Doubles finals there partnering Kim Il-Soon of Korea, when they lost to a very accomplished doubles duo of Natalia Mevedeva and Natasha Zvereva in three sets. That same year, she also competed in the Mixed Doubles together with Todd Woodbridge but went out in the opening round to the eventual champions from England, Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie.

Todd interestingly now lives just a short distance away from Paulette in Melbourne and they seldom let the chance to reminisce on the glory days slip by.

Paulette played Federation Cup for Hong Kong from 1985 until 1995. She was a member of the team that did so well in the World Group in Vancouver in 1987 when they were runners-up in the consolation event beating the teams from Finland, Sweden, Brazil, and Belgium before eventually losing to Holland. The team had to contend with the consolations simply because the luck of the draw had dealt them the formidable West German team in the first round, who were then spearheaded by the fraulein forehand herself – the mighty Steffi Graf.

There simply existed no premier team tennis competitions for girls aged 16 & Under back in the 80s, for Paulette would had most certainly been a mainstay on those teams. Nonetheless, she was very interested to hear that a team of Hong Kong girls were leaving yesterday to take part in the Junior Fed Cup World Finals. The thought of herself in her teenaged years boarding a plane at Kai Tak to take part in Federation Cup matches as a representative of Hong Kong perhaps just resurfaced momentarily.

To this day, Paulette still holds all-time Hong Kong Fed Cup records in two categories: Most Doubles Wins (8-8) and Best Doubles Team (6-3) together with Patricia Hy.

Paulette is now married and currently living in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and two young children. She and her family will be returning to Copenhagen, her husband's home base, in 2007.

Paulette no longer plays competitive tennis, as a long standing back injury that put paid to her playing career before she left Hong Kong in the late 90s, had prevented her from playing anything other than social tennis. Nowadays, she keeps in shape by way of Ballroom dancing and working out in the gym and, of course, taking care of two very active children – a six year-old boy and a three year-old girl. She hopes that the children will take an interest in tennis in the future but has already ruled herself out from coaching them personally!

Whilst in Hong Kong, Paulette has taken the opportunity to catch up with former playing colleagues – Colin Grant, Paul Bailey, Jason Sankey, Jackie Fu – and many other friends whom she had not seen for many years.

The town she used to call home will always greet her in open arms, especially so for a tennis extraordinaire that goes by the name of Paulette Moreno.