Australian ladies’s doubles world No.1 Storm Hunter will reunite with an outdated associate forward of the Australian Open however says it gained’t be Ash Barty.
Hunter climbed to the highest of the world rankings alongside Belgian star Elise Mertens this yr, changing into the primary Australian participant since Sam Stosur in 2006 to attain the feat.
The West Australian got here near successful Wimbledon with Mertens in July, however whereas set on successful a doubles grand slam title additionally needs to speculate extra time in her singles profession.
Hunter reached a singles rating of 119 late in 2021 however presently sits at No.172 regardless of impressing when she performed solo, reaching the second spherical of the French Open.
Her Billie Jean Cup captain Alicia Molik urged the 29-year-old to comply with the footsteps of Barty and Sam Stosur and pursue singles success after she reached the No.1 doubles rating.
“I haven’t spoken to (Molik) privately about that, but for now I’m just sitting back and reflecting on my year and the goals I’ve achieved,” Hunter stated at a celebration of her doubles achievement on Thursday.
“My singles career is definitely something that I really want to focus on. I’m sitting around 160 at the moment and the singles that I played this year, I actually did really well.
“Now it’s just working out the balance between my doubles and singles … it’s very hard to do, I’m aware that if I want to play singles, I need to maybe play a few lower rank tournaments and build up.”
Hunter stated she had loved studying to work with Mertens, a 28-year-old who has loved success in her personal singles profession, however would pair with an outdated doubles associate she was unable to call forward of the Australian Open in January.
“We just both decided that we wanted to play with someone different, nothing kind of really happened or anything. We just wanted to change and a new challenge,” she stated.
“I’m really excited for who I’m playing with next year – I can’t say just yet but we have played together before and done well and I’m really excited for the challenge for next year.”
Hunter, who has a doubles medal firmly in her sights on the Paris Olympics subsequent yr, stated there was no probability Ash Barty would return to the game to pair along with her after the pair performed collectively on the Tokyo Games.
“That’s definitely not going to happen, as much as it would be nice, and we’d all love to see her back,” Hunter stated.
“(Ash) is doing really well, she’s happy at home with her family now, her little boy, but we stay in touch a lot which is nice – she’s always keeping tabs.
“I definitely haven’t asked (her) because I know the answer would be no, but I can suss her out (in the future), we’ll see.”
Source: www.news.com.au
