{"id":19226,"date":"2024-01-18T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=19226"},"modified":"2024-01-18T00:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T16:01:15","slug":"hunter-collects-new-grand-slam-milestone-at-australian-open-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2024\/01\/18\/hunter-collects-new-grand-slam-milestone-at-australian-open-2024","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Collects New Grand Slam Milestone at Australian Open 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storm Hunter is enjoying a fairy-tale run at Australian Open 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After earning her place in the women\u2019s singles draw through qualifying, the 29-year-old has charged into the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time.<\/p>\n

This is the deepest an Aussie qualifier has progressed in an Australian Open women\u2019s singles draw in 39 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the third round, it\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d world No.180 Hunter beamed after completing a hard-fought\u00a06-4 3-6 6-3 victory against Germany\u2019s Laura Siegemund yesterday at John Cain Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter and Siegemund are two of the world\u2019s top-ranked doubles players, however this marked their first singles showdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty tough match out there. Laura is a huge competitor,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI knew going into the match she wasn\u2019t going to give me anything. I had to really earn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a see-sawing battle that lasted two hours and 21 minutes, Hunter\u2019s consistency ultimately proved the difference against the world No.78.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Siegemund committed 52 unforced errors, almost doubling Hunter\u2019s total of 29.<\/p>\n

This is Hunter\u2019s 15th career top-100 win and is her biggest, ranking wise, in a Grand Slam main-draw singles match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely up there with probably one of the best feelings,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cObviously I\u2019ve had some amazing success in doubles, but I feel like this is a little bit different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of opportunities. I have played in main-draw Slams from when I was 19, 20, and kind of couldn\u2019t really get over the first rounds. To do it now I think it just means that much more, because I have had those experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do it in Australia, as well, it\u2019s amazing. The crowd was absolutely incredible, they really helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova now awaits in the third round with the match set for Friday. The 28-year-old Czech is a former world No.2 and was an Australian Open quarterfinalist in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just riding the high right now. I think you\u2019ve got to enjoy it while you can,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t happen every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter will now shift her attention to the mixed doubles tournament today as she teams up with fellow West Aussie Matt Ebden. The pair take on\u00a0Lyudmyla Kichenok and Mate Pavic tonight on Court 8.<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s singles, third round<\/em>
\n[Q] Storm Hunter (AUS)<\/strong>\u00a0v [9] Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storm Hunter is enjoying a fairy-tale run at Australian Open 2024. After earning her place in the women\u2019s singles draw through qualifying, the 29-year-old has charged into the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time. This is the deepest an Aussie qualifier has progressed in an Australian Open women\u2019s singles draw in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6359,"featured_media":19227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19226","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\/19226","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=19226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}