Storm Hunter’s long road to New York’s big stage has been anything but straight. That’s exactly why a first‑round date with Marta Kostyuk – a French Open and Wimbledon semifinalist and one of the heaviest ball-strikers on tour – doesn’t rattle her in the slightest.
The 32-year-old Australian has just forced the statisticians to dig deep. By qualifying for the US Open main draw for the first time, Hunter has become the first active Australian to qualify for all four grand slams. It is a niche achievement, but a rare one in the sport at large, and it underlines just how stubbornly she has pushed against the limits of her career.
She had to fight for every inch of it this week.
Hunter’s qualifying run in New York was a grind: she knocked out compatriot and close friend Maddison Inglis in her opening match, stared down two match points in her second, then sat through a 24-hour weather delay before clinching a third straight sudden‑death victory to book her place.
“This is the last slam on my list to tick off to get through qualies and coming in I hadn’t played many singles matches in the last few months so, yeah, it feels amazing,” Hunter said, the sense of completion obvious.
This is no routine return to Flushing Meadows, either. Hunter missed more than a year after rupturing an Achilles tendon, an injury that would have quietly ended plenty of careers at her age. Now she is back in the US Open main draw for the first time since 2023, carrying the scars of that layoff but also the perspective that comes with it.
Her prize? Kostyuk on day one.
The Ukrainian arrives as the 11th seed, riding the confidence of back-to-back semifinal runs at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and bringing a physical, relentless brand of tennis that has broken through at the sport’s sharp end this season.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Hunter admitted. The former world No.1 doubles specialist knows exactly what she is walking into. “She’s obviously having a really good year. She’s a great player, very physical with the way she plays and a really good competitor.
“So it’s going to be tough. Obviously a very quick turnaround from playing qualifiers to my first round tomorrow, but I’m feeling good and she’s the one who’s under all the pressure to play against me and I have practised with her before.
“I know what her level is and I know it’s going to be a challenge, but I’m up for a challenge. It’s going to be fun. I’m going to enjoy it.”
That, really, is the crux of Hunter’s late surge. After so many interruptions and so much doubt, simply being back on a grand slam main court feels like a victory in itself.
“There’s been lots of times in my career I didn’t think I’d be back playing at this level, so to be back in the main draw of a slam is awesome, and I’m just going to go out and enjoy it and give it a good crack,” she said.
Hunter is one of six Australians on court on Monday, part of a quietly sizeable contingent looking to punch through the early rounds in New York.
- Kim Birrell faces Petra Marcinko, while Talia Gibson also draws Croatian opposition in experienced campaigner Donna Vekic.
- Rising talent Taylah Preston meets American Alycia Parks in a clash that should give a sharp measure of where the teenager’s game sits against raw power.
- On the men’s side, Adam Walton takes on China’s Yibing Wu, and Aleksandar Vukic meets Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, the only Australian men scheduled for first‑round duty on the opening day.
Sixth seed Alex de Minaur, the standard-bearer of the Australian charge, begins his campaign on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), but Hunter’s story, for now, is the one that cuts through.
She has already made history just by getting here the hard way. Now the question is whether that hard road, and the freedom that comes with having nothing to lose, can trouble one of the most in‑form players on the planet.
