{"id":372275,"date":"2026-01-16T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372275\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:00:12","slug":"career-clouds-lifted-as-storm-savours-return-to-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/372275\/","title":{"rendered":"Career clouds lifted as Storm savours return to Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

With her tennis career at a crossroad less than 12 months ago, fan favourite Storm Hunter says qualifying for another Australian Open singles campaign “meant the world”.<\/p>\n

Former doubles world No.1 Hunter secured her spot with a 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 win over another doubles queen, American Taylor Townsend.<\/p>\n

Hunter had to fight for the first set after missing a set point while serving at 6-5 but she won the second in style, capping the victory with an ace on match point.<\/p>\n

The West Australian found herself in tears.<\/p>\n

But it was a very different feeling to the tears shed mid-match last year when Hunter wondered if she’d ever get back to her best after rupturing an Achilles tendon in April 2024.<\/p>\n

\"hunter\"<\/p>\n

“It means everything”: Hunter is appreciative as she approaches her main draw return. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“Honestly, this meant everything, meant the world to me,” the 31-year-old said after qualifying.<\/p>\n

“Last year was really tough – I came back and started playing singles in May last year and really, really struggled.<\/p>\n

“I felt really uncomfortable on the court. Didn’t feel like I was ever going to get my movement and power back on the court and I was in tears in matches, just freaking out.<\/p>\n

“So to be able to get through that and to be here playing and qualify for home grand slam is just amazing.”<\/p>\n

Hunter made some modern-day history with her singles run in 2024, stopped in the third round in a tight three-set defeat to then world No.11 Barbora Krejcikova.<\/p>\n

It was the deepest an Australian qualifier had progressed in an Australian Open women’s singles draw in 39 years.<\/p>\n

\"Hunter\"<\/p>\n

Hunter farewells the crowd after her great run at the 2024 Australian Open. (James Ross\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

She has been drawn to face Spanish world No.40 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the first round, with the Open main draw getting underway at Melbourne Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Hunter feels like she is back playing at the same standard as in 2024 when she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No.114.<\/p>\n

“I thought doubles was going to happen but singles I wasn’t sure so to be back playing at the level that I was playing in 2024, feeling great with my body and my movement, not thinking about my Achilles or any other issues, I could just go out and play freely,” Hunter said.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, it’s just an amazing place to be in.<\/p>\n

“And it’s a credit to my team as well, how much work we’ve done behind the scenes every day, just chipping away, getting better, them also just keeping me positive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With her tennis career at a crossroad less than 12 months ago, fan favourite Storm Hunter says qualifying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[21399,101,98997,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-372275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open","tag-sports","tag-storm-hunter","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}