Storm Hunter Achieves Grand Slam Milestone at US Open

Storm Hunter has spent most of her career fighting for a place in the conversation. Now she has a place in the record books.

The 32-year-old Australian has qualified for the US Open main draw for the first time, completing a rare sweep that has left tennis officials rifling through dusty archives. Historians can confirm one thing: Hunter is the first active Australian player to qualify for the main draw at all four grand slams. Very few, from any nation, have managed the same.

It has been anything but a gentle stroll to Flushing Meadows.

Hunter had to start by knocking out a close friend and compatriot, Maddison Inglis, in her opening qualifying match. She then stared down two match points in her second, refusing to blink. A 24-hour weather delay stretched out the tension before her final qualifying clash, which she survived with a third straight sudden-death victory.

Every step felt like a career in miniature: setbacks, delays, pressure points, and a stubborn refusal to go away.

“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 achievement carries extra weight when you trace the scar tissue. Hunter missed more than a year after rupturing her Achilles tendon, a brutal injury at any age, let alone in your 30s. She now returns to the US Open main draw for the first time since 2023, a late-blooming singles presence after carving out her reputation as a doubles specialist and former world No.1 in that format.

Her prize for all that grind? One of the most dangerous players on the women’s tour.

Hunter opens on day one against 11th seed Marta Kostyuk, the French Open and Wimbledon semifinalist who has muscled her way into the elite this season. Kostyuk arrives in New York with deep runs at Roland Garros and the All England Club behind her and a growing aura as one of the game’s most physical, relentless competitors.

“Yeah, it's tough,” Hunter said of the draw, speaking with the blunt realism of someone who has spent years on the sport’s hard shoulder.

“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.

“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.”

That line – “give it a good crack” – could sit on the cover of Hunter’s career. She has reinvented herself more than once, built a world-class doubles résumé, then pushed back into singles at an age when many peers are eyeing the exit.

She walks into this match with nothing to lose and a heavyweight opponent carrying expectation on her shoulders. Kostyuk has the ranking, the seeding, the recent grand slam pedigree. Hunter has the freedom of a player who has already won her week before the main draw even begins.

She is not the only Australian trying to make Monday matter.

• Kim Birrell faces Petra Marcinko,
• Talia Gibson also meets Croatian opposition in seasoned campaigner Donna Vekic.
• Rising talent Taylah Preston takes on American Alycia Parks in a matchup that should test her nerve as much as her ball-striking.

On the men’s side, Adam Walton lines up against China’s Yibing Wu, and Aleksandar Vukic meets Japan’s Rei Sakamoto, the only Australian men in first-round action on day one.

Sixth seed Alex de Minaur, the standard-bearer of the Australian contingent, waits until Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) to launch his campaign.

For Hunter, there is no waiting left. No more boxes to tick. She has made history just by walking through the gates. Now she gets to see how far that late bloom can stretch under the New York lights.