{"id":19206,"date":"2024-01-12T10:13:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T02:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=19206"},"modified":"2024-01-12T10:14:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T02:14:14","slug":"hunter-and-preston-to-represent-wa-in-the-main-draw-of-australian-open-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2024\/01\/12\/hunter-and-preston-to-represent-wa-in-the-main-draw-of-australian-open-2024","title":{"rendered":"Hunter and Preston to Represent WA in the Main Draw of Australian Open 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Aussies Storm Hunter and Taylah Preston will both compete in the main draw of the Australian Open starting Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Storm Hunter<\/strong> qualified for the main draw after defeating\u00a0Czech teen Dominika Salkova.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old achieved a rare feat at Melbourne Park today, becoming the first reigning world No.1 in doubles to complete a successful Grand Slam qualifying singles campaign in 18 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds pretty cool,\u201d Hunter said when told of her accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in a lot of big moments on the doubles court and beaten a lot of good players, so I\u2019m trying to use that experience in my singles and believe in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her growing confidence was evident as she held off Czech teen Dominika Salkova to secure her place in the Australian Open 2024 main draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh, I literally have no words,\u201d Hunter beamed after sealing a hard-fought 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shaking in the last two games. She\u2019s a quality player, she\u2019s so aggressive and took time away from me, which was a little bit hard for me, because I usually like to be the aggressive one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter, currently ranked No.179 in singles, finished the match with 30 winners to her opponent\u2019s 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so happy, I can\u2019t believe that I\u2019ve qualified at my home Slam,\u201d said Hunter, whose five previous main-draw appearances have been as a wildcard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve qualified at the French and Wimbledon, but to do it here in Australia, which I think is the hardest one for us Australians to do, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

History proves it is difficult for Australians to qualify at their home Grand Slam, with Hunter becoming only the third woman to achieve the feat in Melbourne Park\u2019s 36-year history.<\/p>\n

The only others to do so have been\u00a0Kerry-Anne Guse (in 2000) and\u00a0Astra Sharma (in 2019).<\/p>\n

Hunter had extra motivation to qualify too, with her Perth-based parents arriving in Melbourne on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Genene, is yet to see her play singles at an Australian Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be really special to have them here,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad they\u2019ll get to watch me in singles, doubles and mixed, which is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm Hunter will play Italian Sara Errani.<\/p>\n

Taylah Preston<\/strong> was awarded a main-draw singles wildcards for Australian Open 2024 on the back of a strong 2023 season.<\/p>\n

Preston, a rising 18-year-old from Perth, will make her Grand Slam main-draw debut at Melbourne Park this summer.<\/p>\n

The powerful ball-striker is currently ranked a career-high world No.202, having soared more than 600 positions in the past eight months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dreamed of playing the Australian Open since I first started playing tennis so to be given this opportunity is amazing and I am extremely grateful and excited,\u201d said Preston, a winner of four ITF singles titles in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working hard on and off the court to prepare and I can\u2019t wait to get out on court and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preston will play\u00a019th seed Elina Svitolina.<\/p>\n

Fellow West Australian Maddison Inglis<\/strong>\u00a0was one step away from qualifying unfortunately going down in the final round of the women’s qualifying singles in an enthralling three-set battle against Daria Snigur. Inglis fought back after dropping the 1st set but couldn’t finish it off 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.<\/p>\n

> VIEW: Australian Open 2024 women\u2019s singles draw<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Aussies Storm Hunter and Taylah Preston will both compete in the main draw of the Australian Open starting Sunday. Storm Hunter qualified for the main draw after defeating\u00a0Czech teen Dominika Salkova. The 29-year-old achieved a rare feat at Melbourne Park today, becoming the first reigning world No.1 in doubles to complete a successful Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6359,"featured_media":19208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}