{"id":21569,"date":"2026-03-06T14:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=21569"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:42:38","slug":"hunter-and-gibson-advance-as-aussies-make-history-at-indian-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2026\/03\/06\/hunter-and-gibson-advance-as-aussies-make-history-at-indian-wells","title":{"rendered":"Hunter and Gibson advance as Aussies make history at Indian Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Storm Hunter has progressed to the second round at Indian Wells for the first time after a commanding fightback against Poland\u2019s Magdalena Frech.<\/p>\n

After numerous deficits, Hunter finished the match strong, claiming a 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory over the world No.36 in almost three hours.<\/p>\n

Later on Friday (AEDT), Rinky Hijikata also progressed after he defeated Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli in straight sets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a match with just three breaks of serve, Hijikata was able to stamp his authority, claiming a 7-6(5) 6-4 victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hijikata faces another Italian in 20th seed Luciano Darderi in the second round. The New South Welshman, who also reached the round of 64 in 2023, will be searching for his first victory against Darderi when they square off on Sunday, and a place in the third round for the first time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Frech is the highest-ranked singles opponent Hunter has defeated since beating world No.22 Donna Vekic in Hamburg in July 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s clicking,\u201d said Hunter, who has won her past seven matches across both singles and doubles. \u201cI played a few matches in Austin in doubles, and I really think \u2013 singles or doubles, it doesn\u2019t matter \u2013 if you are playing matches, you\u2019re getting points under pressure, and I think that really helped me come here and just have a free swing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, the courts felt a lot slower here compared to [Austin], so I felt like I had a lot of time on the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndian Wells is \u2018Tennis Paradise\u2019 so I\u2019m really enjoying being here and wanting to play my brand of tennis and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s clicking is that I\u2019m just being really clear with how I want to play and really enjoying being out there on the singles court.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet in an even more significant milestone, Hunter boosts the number of Australian women into the Indian Wells second round to five \u2013 the most in tournament history since the women\u2019s singles event began in 1989.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hunter joins 29th seed Maya Joint \u2013 who received a first-round bye \u2013 in the round of 64, as well as Kimberly Birrell, Ajla Tomljanovic and Talia Gibson, who all advanced on Thursday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so cool that we have five Aussie women through to the second round,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re winning, success breeds success and everyone really believes that if one person is winning, that they can too so it\u2019s been really awesome. I know everyone\u2019s pumped for each other, it\u2019s so good to see.<\/p>\n

READ: Gibson among soaring Aussies at Indian Wells<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is just the beginning. The more we can get some wins under our belt, the more confidence we can [generate] as a team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And with Hijikata’s win later in the day, there are now eight Aussies into the second round across both the men’s and women’s singles draws \u2013 another tournament first.<\/p>\n

Now on a three-match winning streak after beginning the week in qualifying, Hunter next faces No.12 seed Belinda Bencic on Sunday.<\/p>\n

She has also returned to the world\u2019s top 200 in the WTA live rankings.<\/p>\n

A break in Hunter\u2019s opening service game saw the world No.234 face an early deficit, as Frech won the opening set 6-3.<\/p>\n

However, Hunter continued to persevere. After saving two break points to begin the second set, the 31-year-old found a break of her own to maintain pressure. Despite losing serve at 4-2, she rallied again to send the match to a deciding set.<\/p>\n

Frech threatened to take the match out of reach after having two break point chances to hold a double-break lead of 3-0, yet the Australian won her next five games to all but secure a place in the round of 64. Her inspired comeback was fuelled by a unique motivation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally told myself that I can\u2019t lose because it\u2019s Pratty\u2019s [Nicole Pratt\u2019s] birthday, so that definitely helped,\u201d she joked. \u201cBut all jokes aside, I literally just wanted to try and keep playing good tennis. I knew that if I was going to try and win the match, I had to take it on and not let her control the ball and dictate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to play on my terms as much as possible. I also felt like she was getting a little bit tired, gave me a few good looks at her second serve, where I was able to get the break back and the momentum back in the third.<\/p>\n

“Really pumped to get the win.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storm Hunter has progressed to the second round at Indian Wells for the first time after a commanding fightback against Poland\u2019s Magdalena Frech. After numerous deficits, Hunter finished the match strong, claiming a 3-6 7-5 6-3 victory over the world No.36 in almost three hours. Later on Friday (AEDT), Rinky Hijikata also progressed after he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6414,"featured_media":21570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21569","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\/21569","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\/6414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}