Starting in the qualifying rounds, Matt Hulme won seven consecutive matches to win the first of three Australian Pro Tour events in Brisbane.
The 27-year-old, playing his first tournament in three months, upset No.2 seed Jake Delaney 7-6(5) 2-6 7-6(9) in a thrilling final, saving three championship points in the match tiebreak.
It is Hulme’s first professional-level singles title and earns him 25 ranking points, putting him atop the leaderboard in the points race for an Australian Open 2027 qualifying wildcard.
The Australian player who earns the most points across this series of three Pro Tour events in Brisbane will secure their ticket to Melbourne Park.
Belle Thompson tops the women’s leaderboard after reaching the final in Brisbane, where she fell to New Zealand’s Destanee Aiava.
| AO 2027 qualifying wildcard points race (women) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Brisbane 1 | Brisbane 2 | Brisbane 3 | TOTAL |
| Belle Thompson | 10 | 10 | ||
| Alana Subasic | 3 | 3 | ||
| Lily Taylor | 3 | 3 | ||
| Tori Russell | 3 | 3 | ||
| Stefani Webb | 3 | 3 | ||
Thompson upstaged No.1 seed Alana Subasic – also in a match tiebreak – in the quarterfinals before coming from behind to beat Japan’s Natsuki Yoshimoto.
Aiava ultimately won the final 6-2 6-3, the 11th of her career.
Yet the story of the week was unquestionably Hulme, who played nine tiebreaks during his Brisbane campaign – and won eight of them – in a breakthrough week.
He was also two points from defeat in his semifinal against Zachary Viiala before holding firm for a 6-2 6-7(4) 7-6(5) triumph.
| AO 2027 qualifying wildcard points race (men) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Brisbane 1 | Brisbane 2 | Brisbane 3 | TOTAL |
| Matt Hulme | 25 | 25 | ||
| Jake Delaney | 14 | 14 | ||
| Zachary Viiala | 7 | 7 | ||
| Benjamin O'Connell | 7 | 7 | ||
| Jeremy Beale | 3 | 3 | ||
| Chase Ferguson | 3 | 3 | ||
Hulme, who played US college tennis at the University of Nebraska, began competing on the World Tennis (formerly ITF) circuit in 2022.
Until this week, he’d never gone beyond the quarterfinals of any tournament.
With the win, he is projected to soar almost 400 ranking places, from world No.1163 to inside the top 800.
Hulme also won the doubles title, combining with Joshua Charlton. The top seeds won four matches without dropping a set, beating Charlie Camus and Matthew Shearer in the final.
The women's doubles title was won by all-Aussie pairing Lily Fairclough and Roisin Gilheany, who beat No.1 seeds Lin Fang An and Yang Ya Yi from Chinese Taipei 7-6(2) 7-5.
The action continues in Brisbane this week at the second Australian Pro Tour event at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
Hulme will compete with a Special Exempt entry into the main draw, where Matthew Dellavedova is the top seed. Jake Delaney is the No.2 seed, Viiala receives a wildcard and three players – Daniel Jovanovski, Mustafa Ege Sik and Jake Dembo – have entered using places reserved for top-100 junior talents.
Thompson, meanwhile, is the fourth seed in the second Brisbane women's event, while fellow Aussies Stefani Webb, Amy Stevens and Laquisa Khan are also seeded.